An Assessment of the Welfare of Detainees in Remand Detention Facilities: Case of Embakasi East Sub County, Nairobi, Kenya

Abstract

Incacerated persons ought to be accorded dignified treatment under the right to humane treatment. Article 51 of Kenya’s 2010 constitution holds that detained people have all the rights and freedoms in the bill of rights. This project examined the welfare of detainees in detention facilities in Embakasi East Sub-county—specifically, the detainee’s right to standard sanitation and clean water. The study sought to establish the status of detainees’ access to reasonable sanitation standards and clean water within Embakasi East Sub-county detention centers. The study ascertained factors leading to the violation of detainees’ right to standard sanitation and clean water within Embakasi East Sub-county detention centers and suggested some strategies that would enhance respect for detainees’ said right. The study was anchored on the theory of prisonization. The study location was Embakasi East Sub-county. The study sample population entailed a total of ninenty-five (95) particpants drawn from ten (10) detention centers drawn from the sub-county, and they included detainees, Officer Commanding the Stations (OCS’s), police officers-on-duty, and Officer Commanding Police Divisions (OCPDs) from all the sampled police stations within the Embakasi East sub-county. The research design employed descriptive cross-sectional study as it sought to understand the status of the rights to humane treatment in detention centers from the perspective of male detainees. This design was selected because of its ability to provide textual descriptions and first-hand experiences of the participants. The study findings revealed adverse violations of detainee rights that safeguard access to standard sanitation and clean water while in state custody. Most of the detention facilities in Embakasi East Sub-county were overcrowded and lacked adequate hygiene services to accommodate all detainees; hence, unhealthy and life-threatening holding conditions. In the effort to improve the status of the detention facilities, a recommendation is made to increase resource allocation to the detention centres. The move would facilitate the provision of standard sanitation to the detainees hence improving their general welfare