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High Court grants convicts right to attend family funerals

High Court restrains the family of the late Nairobi politician Gerishon Kirima and Nairobi County government from evicting settlers occupying the Kirima land

By Joseph Ndunda | Friday, February 23, 2024

Justice Lawrence Mugambi said all sentenced prisoners and pre-trial detainees held in custody have the right to be treated humanely.

The High Court has ruled that sentenced convicts have the right to attend the funeral of close family members unless there are compelling reasons to deny them such privilege.

Justice Lawrence Mugambi said all sentenced prisoners and pre-trial detainees held in custody have the right to be treated humanely.

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He stated that this privilege is not absolute, as decisions to enable detainees to attend funerals cannot be made spontaneously.

He made the orders following a petition filed by prisoner Moses Dola, an inmate at the Kiambu GK Prison.

Ndola, filed the petition in 2022 seeking enforcement of the Bill of Rights particularly redress for violation and erosion of fundamental freedoms and rights.

He wanted the Commissioner General of Prisons to be ordered to facilitate and allow prisoners to attend burials.

"More often than not, the commissioner general of the Kenya Prison Service, having residual discretion to grant permission to attend funerals, has failed to exercise his direct discretion to allow bereaved inmates to attend funeral services of close family members thereby occasioning untold psychological torment to the affected inmates," Dola stated in his suit papers.

He wanted the court to direct the Prison service to develop mechanisms and structures to permit inmates to attend burials and grief with their families under the escort of prison officers and the judge agreed with him.

The prisoner who is serving a 10-year jail term for manslaughter cited United Nations rules on handling prisoners that require the inmates to be informed of death and serious illnesses of their relatives while in incarceration.