Uhuru Fires Prisons Boss, Appoints KDF Veteran

President Uhuru Kenyatta speaking in Edinburgh, Scotland, during a business meeting with the Scottish Africa Business Association (SABA).
President Uhuru Kenyatta speaking in Edinburgh, Scotland, during a business meeting with the Scottish Africa Business Association (SABA) on Wednesday, November 11.
PSCU

Update 3:36pm: President Uhuru Kenyatta has sacked the Commissioner General of Prisons Service, Wycliffe Ogalo, following the Kamiti Maximum Security Prison break.

President Kenyatta replaced Ogalo with Brigadier (Rtd.) John Kibaso Warioba. 

The appointment follows the briefing to the Head of State by the Interior Ministry's Department of Correctional Services regarding the security breaches at the Kamiti Maximum Security Prison that led to the escape of three inmates.

During the briefing, Uhuru noted the compelling public interest in the Kamiti Prison break and emphasized the need to entrench accountability in the ranks of the leadership of all security organs.

Uhuru also ordered the State Department of Correctional Services to sanction disciplinary action against all Kenya Prisons Service personnel who were on duty when the security breaches occurred; which action shall include redeployment and/or immediate suspension of all affected officers. 

 


President Uhuru Kenyatta on Wednesday, November 17, held a crisis meeting at State House with top security officials over the rising cases of laxity in the sector.

The Head of State met with the Ministry of Interior and Coordination of National Government and Prison bosses just a day after three terrorism convicts escaped from the Kamiti Maximum Prison.

The meeting also comes in the backdrop of increased cases of terror attacks in neighbouring Uganda and the civil unrest being experienced in Ethiopia and Somalia.

Following the escape of the convicts, the Cabinet Secretary for Interior, Fred Matiang'i, visited Kamiti Prison where seven prison wardens were arrested for allegedly abetting the escape of the three hardcore criminals.

Interior CS Fred Matiang'i during meeting with Security players on Tuesday, November 16, 2021.
Interior CS Fred Matiang'i during meeting with Security players on Tuesday, November 16, 2021.
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Interior Ministry

Matiang'i vowed that arrests and prosecutions would follow after the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) moved in to investigate the prison break.

“We will not only go the direction investigations will point us but we will act resolutely to ensure this kind of recklessness does not happen again because it exposes our people.

"Definitely, there is a certain level of irresponsibility we have to deal with in this particular case," he added.

DCI offered a Ksh60 million cash reward for information that will lead to the arrest of the three terrorism convicts who broke out of the prison at 1 am.

After the convicts escaped it took detectives from the Serious Crimes Investigations Unit of the DCI and prison authorities spent more than eight hours analysing and deducing how the scheme was hatched.

The team led by DCI George Kinoti established that the most wanted trio could have been aided by prisons wardens to escape.

Investigations revealed that the terror suspects dislodged a brick on the wall of their cell in Kamiti before escaping. The detectives working on the case are trying to piece together information on how three managed to dislodge the brick without the wardens noticing the commotion.

It is through that wall that the three were monitoring the wardens as they continued orchestrating their escape plan. The detectives stated that the trio could sometimes block the opening created by the dislodged brick using cardboard in order to disguise it.

The night they escaped, the trio reportedly improvised by super creative means. They used blankets and broomsticks to create makeshift ropes that they used to scale two high walls around the correctional facility.

It was also established from the intensive eight-hour probe that the terror convicts had drilled the wall where they dislodged the block. The drilling went from the inside to the outside of the prison.

A file image of prison officers outside the entrance of Kamiti Maximum prison.
A file image of prison officers outside the entrance of Kamiti Maximum prison.
File
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