Angela Kairuki

The government through the Ministry of Home Affairs plans to remove all children born inside prison walls and turn them over to inmates’ families or legal guardians seen that it is contrary to the country laws for a child to leave in prison for more than two years.

Angela Kairuki the Constitutional Affairs and Justice Deputy Minister informed the House in Dodoma on Wednesday as she responded to a question by Special Seats MP Faida Bakar (CCM).

Bakar had wanted to know what the government’s plans were towards the removal of children born in prisons and what kind of compensation was to be awarded to persons found wrongly incarcerated.

“I have visited Isanga prison recently and found about five children there…the law does not allow them to be in prison after a maximum of two years…” explained Kairuki.

In her basic question, Bakar demanded the government explanations as to why there was a delay on the delivery of judgment leading to complaints and despair on the part of suspects and their families.

A shortage of staff and resources turned out to be the reason provided, lack of enough judges, numerous number of cases, low number of investigators, absence of a prosecution office in primary and districts court were cited by Kairuki as major causes of the delays.

She also mentioned the absence of High courts various regions across the country slowed, especially murder cases but of course, explained the deputy minister, some of the judgment simply relied on the very nature of the case to determine its dispersal.

However, she was optimistic, saying the court system has been improving and offered the Kisutu resident court as an example. The court has reduced its ‘back-cases’ from 2055 cases to 170 cases.