FILE PHOTO: Visiting Kitalya Min-Max prison
NEWS EDITOR
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JUST as it is inevitable to fall sick and end up admitted in hospital, so is being arrested, charged and remanded to Kitalya Min-Max Prison! It is many a time unavoidable, you can’t run away from it. Every one is a candidate, any time, any day!
This story will therefore, take the reader through the 27 rules and regulations all Kitalya in-mates MUST abide with to evade punishment and new files (cases) so that when your day comes, you verily know how to keep in the lanes until this prison vomits you.
Are you aware that a big percentage out of the 3000 inmates at Kitalya min-max Prison say are on trumped up charges? If the complainants are not targeting your land, your girl friend, your palatial home, your juicy job, that fancy car or political differences, then it is something about may be, your religious affiliation.
A young boy Alvin who used to operate a mobile money business at Usafi Market in Kampala was roughly arrested one night from his parents’ home in Bulenga simply because someone who had allegedly stolen a phone withdrew money at Alvin’s mobile money shop, months back.
Alvin, a born Again Christian tried to explain himself before security officials that he is just a mobile money agent who attends to hundreds of people on a daily basis, but no one bothered to listen.
Amidst tears from his struggling parents, Alvin was handcuffed and thrown in a police cell from where he was picked and driven to Buganda road court to be charged of rape and aggrevated robbery! Court remanded him to Kitalya Prison! His helpless family up to now doesn’t know how to save this young boy! Cases like that of Alvin, are very many in Kitalya Prison. Yes justice will come but after years but we well know the old adage that Justice delayed is justice denied.
However, it’s also true, at Kitalya Prison there are a number of inmates who are hard core criminals. When you talk to them privately, they confess how they defiled school girls, how they murdered innocent people, how they were involved in aggrevated robbery, name it. We shall come back to this story in another episode with shocking details!
THE 27 RULES & REGULATIONS KITALYA PRISONERS MUST ABIDE TO
Below are the 27 rules and regulations all Kitalya inmates my adhere to and failure to do so, calls for punishment. Read on please;
- No escaping from prison (If you do so and get caught, you will hate the day you were born).
- Respect Lock-up and fall-in (foreni) time e.g time of unlocking in the morning, mid day and final locking in the evening.
- Respect all prison officers.
- Respect all leaders e.g over all, ward leaders (Katikkiros), RPs, etc and fellow in-mates.
- Immoral behaviours such as homosexuality, use of vulgar language, etc are prohibited.
- No fighting in wards and BOMA (out side wards).
- Theft is prohibited like stealing soap, uniforms and blankets.
- Un authorised movements in BOMA is prohibited. Such as; moving to offices, clinic, school, kitchen, isolation wing and gate.
- No tresspasing in wards e.g sitting on beddings of fellow in-mates
- Personal hygiene is a MUST. E.g, bathing, cutting finger nails, shaving hair.
- Civilian clothes (non uniforms) in BOMA are not allowed; such as under wear, jackets, vests, etc.
- No keeping and eating left overs of food.
- Observe silence during bed time (from 9pm – 6am)
- No showering beyond 9pm.
- No use of prohibited articles such as opium, tobbaco, knives, folks, pangas, etc
- Eating utensils are not allowed in the toilets, e.g; Cups, bowls.
- Avoid destruction of government properties such as water taps, showers, glasses, plates, desks, computers and chairs.
- Observe silence and respect during time of prayers.
- No littering of rubbish in any part of BOMA.
- Ensure proper use of toilets, sink, showers, by not dropping in plastic bottles, small pieces of clothes, polythene bags, etc.
- Participation in prison activities such as cleaning, official gatherings, meetings, etc is a MUST.
- All prisoners must stand up while welcoming visitors and clap at the end of address in an organised manner as a sign of respect.
- In-mates MUST squat while talking to officers as a sign of respect.
- In-mates are not supposed to sleep naked.
- All in-mates who are sick MUST report to the ward doctor who will forward them to the officers to be taken for medication and dosage of drugs MUST be taken as prescribed by the medical personnel.
- All in-mates MUST observe quick response to alarm bells or whistles.
- Inciting violence or organising strikes is strictly prohibited
- Entering a ward or transferring yourself to another ward or unit is not allowed.
In the next episode, we will bring you the terminologies used in Kitalya so that you are not caught offside. We also have interesting stories like how Kitalya cameras caught an inmate stealing court bailiff Kirunda’s fish!
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