FRANCIS KITIME PRISONER NO 1797, life in prison

Friday 16^th November 1962 was Prisoner no 1797’s first day in Ruanda Prison Mbeya.  A day in prison started at 5 am in the morning, a  whistle was blown and all prisoners ran to the kitchen for a breakfast of maize porridge with little or no sugar at all, then they were divided into gangs of 15 to 20 people, for different  task, wood cutting, stone crushing cleaning or soft jobs like cleaning the Provincial Commissioners compound and washing his cloths or sent to the prison kitchen for preparation of food for prisoners.  Each morning prisoners were sent to a different task.

There were cells for extra punishments in the prison, these were small rooms, with hardly enough space to stretch, and prisoners were sent there if they were found with things like cigarettes or even a toothbrush.

The morning after he arrived, news of a new prisoner who was a teacher spread the whole prison compound. ‘Prison guards always mocked him, ‘So you are a teacher, why did you turn into a thief? You will pay for your sins here’.

In the first month he was permanently put into a gang that cut firewood for the prison. Then he was transferred to break stones, a very hard work, from early morning to about half past two in the afternoon.

One day in January 1963 while breaking stones the Chief Warder Mr Sifaa called for my father. His fellow inmates asked him, ‘Mwalimu what have you done?  You are finished now’
In his words my father once told us what happened that day, ‘ I was marched to the prison yard, and then sent to the Prison Superintendent’s office,  he was called Mr Kazinja, when I entered the office Mr Kazinja told the Chief Warder, I have worked in prisons for 25 years and I have never seen anything like this,  he took a letter from his table and gave it to Mr Sifaa to read, Mr Sifaa was also extremely surprised, Mr Kazinja asked me if I could read English, I said I did, so he gave me the letter to read. It had been sent from the Director of Ministry of Education in Dar Es Salaam to me, is said,

‘I am very pleased to have to send this letter of promotion to you. You are now Education Officer Grade III effective July 1^st 1962, congratulations’
One thing my father immediately noted was that the letter was written in June 1962, where was it until he received it in prison in January 1963  six months later? Had it anything to do with the  300/- loan setup? He never got the answer.

By that letter his salary would have increased to 700/- per month, and he would have no longer been a mere teacher but an Education officer.
The Superintend Mr Kazinja gave orders to the Chief Warder he said, ‘You know in this prison we are now three officers me, you and this teacher. From now on this man will no longer go to work in outside gangs. He will now be treated as an officer, give him a spring bed, tea with milk every morning and will only work as a supervisor. And from day until his release prisoner No. 1797, worked only as a kitchen supervisor.