The encounter formed the conclusion of a three-week series of events staged by Gefährdetenhilfe Scheideweg e.V. in Kenya's prisons. “We very much appreciate their commitment in our country's prisons”, insisted Awori before the 30-strong group from Germany. Their contributions to the work of the Kenyan penal system were very diverse:

In the capital Nairobi, and in the western towns of Kisumu and Kakamega, the group staged training sessions for prison officers, at each of which there was a lively exchange of experience. On the German side, the speaker was the governor of Remscheid prison, Wolfgang Wermke, who accompanied the group.

There was special recognition for the commitment of Swiss dentist, Dr. Roland Eisenring and his wife Anne-Marie, who together with other helpers in a mobile dental clinic extracted some 300 teeth and stitched the wounds of prisoners plagued by toothache.

The Scheideweg group had also rehearsed songs and short plays in Kisuaheli and other African languages and, in services led by Kenyan prison chaplains, told of the power of God's love to transform lives. The Germans' Kisuaheli sounded so authentic that Vice-President Awori first began his thank-you speech in his native language and only switched to English after a signal by one of his assistants.

A significant contribution to the trip's success was the support of the Kenyan penal system and its head, Commissioner of Prisons Gilbert Omondi: The Commissioner made a bus owned by the prison service available to the Scheideweg group and had them escorted by two security officers and two managers from the prison service's head office. So many a Kenyan was duly astonished to see happy white faces peering out of the barred windows of a vehicle actually intended to transport prisoners and with the corresponding wording on the outside.

One thing that the guests from Germany clearly felt was the wind of reforms within Kenya's prison system. Even though the country's 93 penal institutions, with their population of 50,000 prisoners, were only built to house 16,000, and are thus 313 percent overfilled, the managers of the penal system are no longer making a secret of that problem. In the wake of the reforms that have been happening for the last four years, the media and non-government organizations have been given access to Kenya's prisons, torture and beatings have been eliminated and the nutrition situation improved. With its workshops, teaching programmes, creative courses and improved building conditions, the Langata women's prison at the edge of Nairobi is playing the role of a broker. Nonetheless: Accommodation, clothing and care of the excessive number of prisoners is overwhelming the penal system, which in Kenya, too, mirrors the social situation:

While I write this report in my hotel room in Nairobi my thoughts go back to the previous night, when I was kept awake by a long period of small-arms fire near the building. Suspicious people are shot every day in East Africa's metropolis of crime. And the newspapers brim over with detailed descriptions of murder, robbery and vicious rapes. Organized crime is seen as a growing threat to the security situation. Dozens of murdered policemen in recent days are said to be on the account of the Mungiki gang. Newspaper reports define the image of criminality and the population fails to realise that the vast majority of prisoners end up in court because of other offences: petty theft, moonlighting with alcohol or drunken brawls. And according to reports by prison officers, the share of innocent people that have wound up behind bars is anything but insubstantial. Months and years can flow under the bridge before a final conviction or acquittal.  

Even in some Christian minds, the attitude towards convicts is somewhere between critical and condemning. The prison mission group feel that in a church service they hold “outside” on a Sunday. Others attending the service report beforehand on the shock they felt when they saw a prison bus standing in front of the door. Their words “We are so relieved that the bus brought our German friends and not ‘evil' prisoners” are well meant. But the speech gave the Scheideweg group something to ponder on...

So recruiting voluntary staff for the prison mission from Kenya's churches is one key to the success of their work in Kenya. For the German prisoner aid organization has been more than just a guest in the East African country for the last two years. Close to Lake Victoria, German and Kenyan Christians have begun building a farm of 70 hectares (170 acres), where young people released from prison will find a home and work. The project enjoys the full support of the Kenyan prison service and the protestant Africa Inland Church. “We've done too little for too long for prisoners”, admits the church leader responsible for the Western Province, Pastor Patrice Chumba. Now the church wants to support the German association in giving life to a Kenyan prison mission. This year's trip made an important contribution to doing so.

What Gefährdetenhilfe Scheideweg is developing in Kenya could also set an example for other African nations. For instance, prison mission staff from Germany and Kenya will already present their first experiences in two weeks time at the CESCA Conference in Swaziland, a forum for dialogue between prison governors of the African continent. There are already some contacts in place with Uganda and South Africa.