Nairobi News

Police are on the spot after a tout who was arrested for not wearing a uniform died in hospital last month, but his death was only reported on Tuesday, December 5.

The tout, who was arrested during a police operation on November 15, 2023, was later arraigned in court and charged with another offence of not wearing a PSV badge was remanded at Industrial Area Remand, but a day later, on November 16, started complaining of chest pain.

Simon Maina had pleaded not guilty but could not raise his cash bail.

According to officials, after his remand, he fell sick and was rushed to Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) where he succumbed on November 17 evening.

But prison authorities did not report his demise, only reporting the matter to police three weeks later.

The report was made at the Capitol Hill police station on Tuesday evening.

The body has been lying at the hospital mortuary since he died.

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A postmortem is planned on the body to establish the cause of his death.

Police did not say if his next of kin was notified or not.

In October, the Principal Secretary (PS) for Correctional Services, Salome Beacco, revealed that half of the inmates in Kenyan prisons are petty offenders.

Beacco noted that about 30,000 inmates out of the 62,000 inmates serving various terms for various offences are petty offenders convicted because they were unable to raise bail.

The PS said that the government has come up with measures to reduce the number of petty offenders in jail as a way of decongesting prisons.

She also acknowledged that her department had implored the judiciary to adopt alternative dispute resolution mechanisms such as community service among others.

Beacco maintained that her department had recommended the courts review the cases to ensure that the petty offenders don’t serve custodial sentences.

This, according to the PS, will go a long way in reducing congestion in jails.