4 August 2010

Nairobi — Prisoners made history as they voted in Wednesday's referendum. Kitui Prison scored another first after it became the first polling centre nationally to finish tallying.

Out of 38 registered voters, 27 voted for the draft and seven against, handing the 'Yes' team resounding victory. Those interviewed said they were happy with the Bill of Rights and the Supreme Court.

The presiding officer at Kamiti, Mr Moses Wambui, said voting started at 8am after inmates had taken breakfast and cleared routine procedures. "We have 200 voters from the maximum security section and 51 from the medium prison," he said.

When the Nation visited the prison inmates were in the queue, waiting for their turn to vote. Only 251 out of 2,700 inmates voted.

Denge Dima, who has served 16 years, said he was voting for change because "the people who came here to teach us about the proposed constitution assured us that there would be change."

Meanwhile, voting at Kiambu Prison was delayed after agents failed to show up. The exercise went on without the agents and only 31 of the 200 prisoners took part since the rest were not registered.

At Shimo la Tewa, about 196 inmates voted. The presiding officer, Mr Aggrey Akwoyo, said there were 156 registered inmates from the main prison, 30 from the annex, eight women and two from the borstal institution.

The officer in-charge of the main prison, Ms Margaret Chumo, said some of those registered had been freed after serving their terms or on bail.

"Those remaining could be about 120 because some were released on bond, but we expect them to come and vote," she said.

Reported by Casper Waithaka, Eric Wainaina, Eunice Machuhi