This is quite and interesting book written my the late Wahome Mutai known commonly as whispers. It addresses the plight that faces many prison inmates. The inhumane conditions that that are exposed to. It also addresses the faults of the justice system and the government of Kenya. The book was published in 1992, before there was a change in the government of Kenya. The new government is known to have made attempts to improve the situation now, if it is put to the required standard is yet to be confirmed. The story is told in a humorous way, which is Mutai's style, yet the point is driven home.
The story is about a man who finds himself in jail by accidentally hitting and killing a child who was running after a ball on the main road. He stays in prison for two weeks but to him it is "worse than being in hell". While in jail other prison inmates give their experiences of why they are in jail some are as guilty as death and others are innocent. For example there is an inmate who is arrested for refusing to give the chief the only cock he had. The chief was demanding money for building a "a new project", and the poor man did not have any money the only precious possession he had was the cock. He also describes the relationship between the prison inmates and the wardens, he describes the wardens as uneducated who usually seek the help of prison inmates when it comes to reading letters send to them. The question that the author tries to raise is whether prisons are meant to rehabilitate, or is it simply a training camp to make social misfits good in that which they do best; break the law.
I could put this book in the same category as the book Going down river road, by Meja Mwangi. This book vividly describes the living conditions and the style of living in river road. The poor living conditions and basically the struggle to survive. The book talks about a man called Ben who works as a construction worker and spends the little money he earns on alcohol and prostitutes. One day an ex-prostitute, Wini drops by and leaves him with a baby who is not even his. She disappears never to be seen again. Ben has to struggle to live with this baby.
This new responsibility does not completely change Ben's life. Ben is depicted as a character who makes wrong choices in life yet you can not help but feel pity for him.
Both stories can be said to depict the so called urban life in Kenya and its consequences. The writers have managed to raise various themes like, corruption, struggle to survive, poverty, crime and many others. |
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