Message-ID: <199602212355.SAA25034@postoffice2.mail.cornell.edu> Date: Wed, 21 Feb 1996 18:49:58 -0500 From: Gustavo Gutierrez <mailto:cgg2@CORNELL.EDU> Subject: Koigi out of solitary confinement To: Multiple recipients of list DEVEL-L <mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU>
Please, read and respond as appropriate. Thanks.>Date: Wed, 21 Feb 1996 08:58:17 -0400
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>From: mailto:khri-mailbox@cornell.edu (The Kenya Human Rights Initiative)
>To: Camel Breeders announcement list <mailto:CAMELS-L@cornell.edu>
>Subject: Koigi out of solitary confinement
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> * PLEASE DISTRIBUTE WIDELY - ACT NOW TO FREE KOIGI IN THE NEXT 4 WEEKS! *
> ^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^ ^ ^^^^^
>Good news! Our pressure is making a difference! Keep it up! Over the
>weekend, Koigi and his co-defendants were moved out of solitary confinement
>at Kamiti prison in Nairobi. They are now allowed more ordinary
>'privileges' of other inmates such as a diet with milk and fruit as well as
>access to the news. (See news briefs at end of this posting.) If anyone is
>interested in a 6 page letter regarding prison conditions that Koigi wrote
>from prison dated January 18, 1996, please email us privately.
> Also, representatives from KHRI will be meeting with Rep. Don Payne
>and George Moose (US State Dept.) to discuss the human rights situation in
>Kenya, at a conference at Cornell this weekend. If you'd like us to relay
>any letters or pointed Q's to them, please do not hesitate to email us by
>Friday at noon. Thanks!
> We have received word that one of Norway's largest publishing
>houses (Aschehoug), published a book by Koigi last year sent from his
>prison cell, called "A Dream of Freedom". It is a novel, but in essence is
>only a slightly fictionalized version of mostly autobiographic material
>from Koigi. Anyone interested can contact Halfdan W. Freihow (E-mail:
mailto:>halfdan.freihow@aschehoug.no) at H. Aschehoug & Co., P.B. 363 Sentrum, 0102 >Oslo, Norway, Tel: (+47)22 40 04 00, or 40 03 33 (dir), Fax: (+47)22 20 63
>95
>
> Finally, as a fundraiser to pay for postage, phone calls and
>copying costs, we have available about 150 "FREE KOIGI" t-shirts with the
>Amnesty International logo. Our break-even cost is $5.20 (US) per shirt
>(Many thanks to "Mirror Image" in Boston - 100% cotton, 3 sizes, 3 natural
>colors). We are willing to send them at cost plus postage to any individual
>or group as long as it is understood that any funds from resale be used for
>efforts to FREE Koigi and his co-defendants!
> Let's keep the pressure on Moi and the international
>representatives to the March 21-22 Kenya donor aid meeting. We can make the
>most impact in the next 4 weeks if we are united, targeted and true to
>Koigi's original vision for Kenya -- open, democratic, free and just. Keep
>the faith! We are making headway!
> -Mike Koplinka-Loehr for KHRI
>--------------------
>2/17 KOIGI 3 MOVED FROM SOLITARY CONFINEMENT
>Koigi wa Wamwere and his two fellow inmates who are serving a four-year jail
>term at Kamiti Prison, have expressed their thanks to the authorities for
>moving them out of solitary confinement. They said they are now allowed more
>hours of sunshine. According to their lawyer, Paul Muite, the three,
>Wamwere, Njuguna Ngengi and Kuria Wamwere, are now being kept together and
>given a diet including milk and fruits, recommended by doctors treating
>them for stomach ulcers. However, Muite said the inmates are frustrated
>with Justice David Rimita's delay in giving dates for the hearing of an
>application for bail, pending appeal, which they filed last year.
> "The offence of simple robbery for which they were convicted is
>bailable. Given that they were in custody for two years prior to their
>conviction, they are justifiably anxious to have their application for bail
>pending appeal heard without delay," Muite said in a statement.
> Muite said the Wamwere three had instructed him to write to Justice
>Rimita to request immediate hearing dates for the application. He said his
>clients had asked him to make the request for hearing dates in an open
>letter because of "the nature of their case."
>
>2/20 KAMITI ORDERED TO LET KOIGI WATCH TV, READ PAPERS
>Nakuru Chief Magistrate William Toiyot has ordered the Kamiti prison
>authorities to allow Koigi Wa Wamwere and his two fellow convicts access to
>the prison's library. The three should also be allowed access to facilities
>like radio and television like other inmates.
> Koigi, his younger brother, Charles Kuria Wamwere and retired army
>captain G.G Njuguna Ngegi were convicted of a simple robbery late last
>year. The former MP and Ngegi had appeared in court for the mention of six
>charges
>against them. In some of the cases, Koigi is jointly charged with lawyer
>Mirugi Kariuki.
> Kariuki told the court that although the convicts had been moved out of
>solitary confinement, ''they are not allowed to mingle with other inmates''.
>The said the three had also been denied access to the prison's library '' as
>they are not allowed to borrow any books. The accused are also not allowed
>to listen to radio or watch TV like other prisoners.'' He said the books
>that the three had received while at remand at Nakuru prison during their
>trial had been taken away from them and relatives asked to go and collect
>them.
>--------------------
>
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>The Kenya Human Rights Initiative (Ph. & Fax:607-255-9985)
mailto:>khri@cornell.edu >G29 Anabel Taylor Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA
> FREE KOIGI! "Make Injustice Visible" -Mahatma Gandhi
>Our internet Home page address is: http://www.cornell.edu/Alumni/koigi.html
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Gustavo Gutierrez International Agriculture Program 325 Caldwell Hall Cornell University