Prisoners at Korinda women prisons in Busia town celebrated the international women’s day in style at the prison after they were visited by well wishers who included women NGOs and business ladies from Busia county. The seventy prisoners mingled with the well-wishers by playing with them various games including netball, dancing and eating competition.
The well-wishers also gave them basic needs to use while in prison, “We are so happy because we have been visited by well wishers who are our fellow women and we really feel blessed because they have encouraged us and made us feel like those women outside prison.”
The well-wishers led by Nastea Kemutho and Zilper Bett said they decided to celebrate the day with the female prisoners so as to encourage them and give them hope, “We are happy to realize that most of them have accepted that they are here to be corrected and we hope the correctional center will mold them into useful and law abiding citizens when they finish their sentences.”
The prison’s superintendent Dorine Anabaka and John Onchiri who doubles up as superintendent Korinda male prison and commissioner of prisons in Busia county said the gesture by the well-wishers should be emulated by others well-wishers, “When the prisoners are treated to such activities they feel so encouraged and hopeful.”
They joined hands with the well-wishers to urge members of the society to accept the prisoners once they compete their jail terms, “Many times our prisons receive second time offenders who are forced back to prison because the community rejected them. We also have children whose parents are in jail and because they are stigmatized, they commit crimes and find themselves in jail too that is why we are appealing to the community to accept these prisons when they are released because while here they are trained in various fields and can be of help to the society if they are embraced and given opportunity.”