A moment of choice
Langata Women’s Prison is the largest female prison in Nairobi, Kenya. It is situated south-west of the city centre, just off the Ngong Forest Road which divides the now fashionable suburb of Langata from Kibera Town, the largest slum in Sub-Saharan Africa. The metal front gate is painted British racing green, a relic of colonial rule in the 1960s.
I was taking part in the five-day Leader’s Quest program in September 2016. We were touring the prison facilities as a guest of the Governor, Madam Olivier, and Theresa and Joss, founders of the charity Clean Start which helps ex-prisoners acclimatise to life outside.
We were escorted through the prison grounds visiting the wood-fired laundry and kitchen, the market garden, the workshops, and accommodation blocks. The infrastructure was showing its age after 50 years. Sanitation was a problem. Cholera still breaks out here. It was a strange inside-out zoo experience. We were the ones being observed. In the assembly hall we were treated to dance, song, and poetry performances by the inmates.
I sat down with two prisoners, Tina and Phoebe, for one-on-one conversations, with only passive observation from the guards. Tina, aged about 40, told me her story. She had stabbed her husband to death in a drunken rage. She told me how she picked up a knife in the heat of the moment, not knowing what was happening. That moment of choice had led her to where she was now, facing the possibility of a death penalty.
Phoebe, aged in her late 20s, had been picked up smuggling drugs into Africa from Hong Kong. She told me her daughter was being looked after by her in-laws, but she couldn’t reach her and didn’t know what was happening. All because of a choice she made to smuggle drugs.
The pain in the eyes of both these women was overwhelming. It was just a moment of choice. I realised the difference between me and the two human beings sitting opposite me was just a thin veil. They were me, if not for the slightest of changes, the tiniest shift of a choice one way or the other.
As I got up to leave, Phoebe asked if she could hug me. The guard nodded. It was a heart-rending connection and one of the deepest, most profound experiences of my life.
The idea that it all comes down to choices is so powerful. These two women were no different to any of us. Under different circumstances and had they made different choices, I’m sure they would have gone on to lead normal lives.
I wished they’d had access to system 3 thinking.
