There are over 50,000 prisoners across 108 prison institutions in Kenya.  However these prisons are over double their official capacity, conditions in many prisons could  fairly be described as harsh and life-threatening, and very few inmates have the  resources or capacity to represent themselves.

In this context, CLEAR works closely with prison staff and the Kenya Prison Service to provide access to justice to as many prisoners as possible. This is achieved with weekly prison visits to identify cases of greatest needs, such as: where there has been a significant miscarriage of justice, where a prisoner has been held on long term bail waiting for his/her charge sheet, helping a prisoner trace ‘missing’ paperwork, identifying and highlighting children in adult prisons, or issues of abuse suffered by prisoners whilst in custody. Of the 2191 new cases noted above adopted in 2016 for advice and/or representation, 286 cases came through weekly prison visits.

As well as direct legal representation and advice in prisons, CLEAR also conducts legal education seminars in prisons to provide detainees with enough basic legal knowledge to self-represent. This includes teaching prisoners about the criminal litigation process, from arrest to appeal, therefore helping them to speak for themselves.  In 2016, 35 such seminars were conducted reaching 9588 prisoners.