The Kenya Prisons Service now says the expose titled ‘Inside the Kamiti Maximum Prison Call Centre,’ published earlier this week, the videos were shot in 2019.
Kenya Prisons Commissioner-General John Warioba noted that the rogue inmates in the high-security institution who were allegedly stealing Kenyans’ hard-earned money had already been punished and that order had been restored in the correctional facilities.
This is after a local TV station described David Tett, a former Kamiti Maximum convict, how he conducted the scheme.
Warioba says the expose has been aired in 2022, yet Tett was released from prison on September 9, 2021.
“We wish to clarify that one David Tett, a former prisoner, who was referred to in the clip aired on April 18, 2022, as a mastermind of the vice, was transferred from Kamiti Maximum Security prison to Kamiti Medium Security Prison on July 22, 2021, from where he was eventually released on September 9, 2021,” said Warioba.
“Much as the Service appreciates the media for educating and informing the public about what is going on, especially in our correctional facilities, we urge that correct fact be presented.
If it is a story or clips recorded in the past, like the one which is the subject of this clarification, it should be indicated so,” he said.
He urged the media to present correct facts to the public to avoid misinforming them.
Warioba assured the country of its commitment to ensuring that correctional facilities achieve their role purpose of reforming offenders.
The revelation stunned some Kenyans, who wondered how inmates managed to get their hands on the devices and use them in what was believed to be the country’s most secure jail.
The inmates pretended to be representatives of telecommunications companies and would trick their unsuspecting victims into giving them their ID and M-Pesa details, which they would use to siphon funds.
Others tricked their victims into sending them money via mobile cash transfer platforms.
The expose revealed that one victim lost up to Sh4 million after one of the inmates pretended, he was in a position to sell the victim a motor vehicle.