How picking a mobile phone from the dustbin landed me 8 years in prison

Joseph Kimeu was born into a humble family in Naivasha and is one of three siblings. He grew up with his sister and her husband, who provided for his education. However, the unfair treatment he received from them pushed him to leave home and venture into street life.

“I decided to join life on the streets in order to eat better and try to have a better life,” Kimeu shared on Citizen TV's Shajara na Lulu show.

“In the streets, I would definitely eat better than where I previously was. We would get food from dustbins that hotels would leave outside. We would then take dirty containers, clean them, clean the dirty food, and then cook it.”

Life on the street was tough for Kimeu despite getting the food he needed. He resorted to abusing drugs to cope with his new reality, stating that drugs helped him deal with the harsh conditions, including the cold weather.

During one of his routine searches for food in dustbins, he found a phone. This item would change his life forever and lead to him spending eight years behind bars.

“I found a phone in the dustbin. I didn't know whose it was or how it got there. I put my line in the phone and started using it. A week later, the police stopped us and signalled us to come over. We thought they wanted to give us food or clothing, something that good Samaritans often did, so we didn’t think much of it.

“They asked if I was Joseph, and I said yes. They said they had tracked the phone to me, and it had been reported stolen. I told them I had not stolen the phone and had found it in the dustbin. They asked me to reveal the people who were with me when the phone was stolen, but I said no one because I found the phone alone. That’s when I was jailed,” he recounts.

Kimeu recounted his life as he served time in jail. Upon his incarceration, he was immediately assigned bathroom duty, which involved cleaning toilets and bathrooms and ensuring they were spotless.

He further described how, in prison, people would be sexually assaulted after being drugged.

"There is a drug called ragatin.’ When put in food, you lose consciousness and find you have been molested. One day, I have no idea what was put in my porridge because afterward, I started becoming drowsy. So one of the inmates in charge told the head officer I wasn’t feeling well, and that's when I went to be checked` at the infirmary."

"The inmate in charge had put this drug in my food in order to molest me. I found my trousers open but had not been molested. Eventually, I was taken to the hospital and treated," said Kimeu.

"After the incident, one of my friends saw what was transpiring between the guards and me, how they would treat me, and how my life was in danger. He told me he would ensure my room was changed."

Kimeu explained how later on, the room he was transferred to turned out to be worse than where he was before. He stated how food was used as a way to "marry off someone," adding that the more weight someone gained, the more appealing they looked to the other prisoners.

"If you would agree to eat the food given to you by another older inmate who had sneaked in food, then you would be married off to that inmate. If you agree to have a big stomach, you’re immediately married off and/or molested," he adds.

Eventually, Kimeu acquired friends who taught him the ins and outs of navigating prison life. He also mentioned how some of the prisoners acquired HIV/AIDS after being molested in the prison.

"My friend told me about two other friends of ours who got HIV in prison due to being sexually molested. Some of them were also sodomized to the point where the doctors could not do anything."

"If you went and reported how you had been sexually molested, they would try to fight you. I also started getting skin problems because of the bed bugs in the place," Kimeu narrated.

"I was taught that you should not envy other people's things or touch them, and do not eat too much or gain weight because that is what would make you sexually appealing to other older inmates."

Kimeu taught himself various skills such as shoemaking, baking, making aluminium sufurias, and painting. In due course, he finished serving his eight-year sentence but with scars that will last him a lifetime.

He still picks up scraps and metals from the roadside, trying to make ends meet for his three children as he hopes for a better life.