AN EXAMINATION OF POLITICAL DOMINATION AND CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTIONS: THE CASE OF MANYANI PRISON IN KENYA, 1952 – 2003.

Abstract

ABSTRACT In the study of prisons, new patterns of interest to historians tend to emerge especially in the context of the colonial and post colonial states. Within the colonial context, state punishment was predominantly exclusionary within the metropole and throughout most of the twentieth century as the dominant penal discourse. It is within this context that this study examined the concept of political domination in context to Manyani prison. The institution was started as a holding camp for “hard core” Mau Mau fighters. Manyani held Mau Mau fighters from 1952 to 1959. It was also used to detain political figures who opposed both Kenyatta and Moi governments. The colonial government preferred Manyani prison because of its harsh environment that was expected to exert maximum physical torture on the detainees so that they could plead guilty and assist in ending the Mau Mau uprising. The study accounted for the place of crime and punishment during the pre-colonial and colonial period. It examined prison conditions and established the rationale for the continued use of the institution long after independence. The methodology of study included collection of both primary and secondary data as well as archival reading and field work. Informants were selected through snowball and purposive sampling procedures. The study utilized internal and external criticism for data analysis. The study provided a historical analysis of Manyani prison from colonial to post colonial era. It also established factors that led to the establishment of Manyani prison. The study unearthed conditions of inmates in Kenya’s correction services, traced the growth and development of the prisons in Kenya. The study added to the historiography of prisons in Kenya. Other beneficiaries of the study include policy makers in the government and the human rights crusaders.