Praise for Kenyan jailbreak protester

The prisoner could easily have disappeared in Nairobi's slums

By Andrew Harding East Africa correspondent

A Kenyan man has escaped from jail - not in a bid for freedom, but in order to protest about prison conditions.

The convicted robber, Jon Njuguna, went straight to the commissioner of prisons to tell him that inmates were starving, because their rations were being stolen.

People are going hungry and may die when they well know that the government is sending enough food.

Jon Njuguna

After a decade behind bars, he was due to be released early next year; but at 0600 on Thursday yesterday, he decided he had had enough.

He was helping to feed the prison cattle at the time and simply strolled away unnoticed. He changed his clothes, waved down a bus and set off for Nairobi.

Eight hours later, Jon was sipping a soda in the office of Kenya's commissioner of prisons.

Plea

He wanted, he said, to complain about the terrible plight of his fellow inmates, who had helped to organise his escape and chipped in for his bus fare.

"They are all close to starvation," he said.. "Our rations are being stolen by the guards; some may soon die."

Kenya's prisons are notorious for their poor conditions and overcrowding.

Jon had taken the precaution of contacting a local newspaper before turning himself in.

In the full glare of publicity, the Kenyan prison authorities have actually congratulated the escapee.

Senior superintendent, Mary Okumo, said: "I admire what he's done; he could have chose simply to run off. We are sending someone to investigate the situation at Embu prison."

Jon is now back behind bars at a different jail.

The authorities say he will serve out his last five months for robbery with violence, but not a day longer.