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My Life in Prison
When John Kiriamiti was convicted on a charge of robbery with violence and sentenced to 20 years imprisonment with 48 strokes of the cane, he was dejected and distraught. There was no way he could spend 20 good years behind those grim walls of prison, he told himself. And he straightway embarked on a mission to escape the throes of prison.
Written from the point of view of the first person narrator, My Life in Prison is a rendition of the travails and tribulations that Kiriamiti experienced behind bars. Like in his first novel, My Life in Crime, Kiriamiti gives us yet another autobiography account of his dramatic life as a criminal, an account that is brutally frank as it is graphic in detail.
Written from the point of view of the first person narrator, My Life in Prison is a rendition of the travails and tribulations that Kiriamiti experienced behind bars. Like in his first novel, My Life in Crime, Kiriamiti gives us yet another autobiography account of his dramatic life as a criminal, an account that is brutally frank as it is graphic in detail.
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
66 people are currently reading
1052 people want to read
About the author
John Kiriamiti
6 books188 followersJohn Batista Wanjohi Kiriamiti was born on 14 February, 1950 in Thuita Village, Kamacharia Location of Murang'a District in Central Kenya, he is the second of nine children born to Albert and Anne Wanjiru Kiriamiti, both primary school teachers (now retired) in Murang'a.
Kiriamiti studied for and passed his Certificate of Primary Education (CPE) at the local primary school in Thuita Village. He was privileged to be among the first nine African students to join the dominantly‐white Prince of Wales School (now Nairobi School) at a time when most Africans could not afford the Ksh 1,080 school fees charged. Although Kiriamiti received bursaries as a gifted African student, he joined Prince of Wales school as a day scholar and stayed with his uncle in Bahati Estate in Nairobi's Eastlands where his elder brother Sammy stayed too.
His academic life at the Prince of Wales School was short‐lived though because in his last term as a Form One student, at the age of fifteen, he was expelled from school after being the ring leader in a student's strike. That marked the end of Kiriamiti's formal education in spite of pleas from his parents to take up schooling elsewhere.
Kiriamiti resulted to wayward behaviours, and by the age of twenty, he was already a known robber and in the police "VIP list", as he calls ‘the most wanted' police list. As a criminal, Kiriamiti went by the names John Khamwene, Charles Lukindo, Richard Mwangi, Albert Ngure, Albert Wanjohi, and Jack Zollo (a name which he later used for his fictionalized self in both My Life in Crime and My Life in Prison) among others.
In 1971, after a long cat and mouse game with the police, Kiriamiti was arrested and sent to jail for twenty years with forty-eight strokes of the cane. It is at Kamiti Maximum Security Prison and Naivasha Government Maximum Prison that his first novel, My Life in Crime, was written, and the initial ideas of My Life in Prison born.
Five months after the publication of My Life in Crime (in 1984), Kiriamiti was released on grounds of good conduct, having served thirteen out of his twenty year sentence. Kiriamiti's freedom however did not last long for two years down the line (in 1986), he was sent back to jail by President Moi's regime for allegedly being involved in what the government deemed a seditious movement meant to overthrow the government (Mwakenya).
This time Kiriamiti found himself head‐on with the law after Benga musician‐turned‐soldier, Hajullas Ochieng Kabaselle, implicated him in crime. Having had interacted with most of the brains thought to be behind the Mwakenya movement like Onyango Oloo, Prof. Katama Mkangi, Mwandawiro Mgangha, Joe Ombuor and others, Kiriamiti was a natural suspect to the authorities.
Resultantly, he earned himself a seven‐year sentence for the alleged involvement in a clandestine movement. However, he was released after four years, on 11 February, 1990 (the same day that South Africa's freedom icon, Nelson Mandela was released from Robben Island). As fate would have it, two days later, what was thought to be the political assassination of the Foreign Affairs Minister Hon. John Robert Ouko on 13 February, 1990 linked him to yet another ‘suspicious look' from Kenyans, as rumour had it that he "was released to kill Ouko".
Nevertheless, since his trading of the gun for a pen, and his subsequent release from Kamiti Maximum Security Prison, Kiriamiti has become a renowned philanthropist and social reformist rehabilitating street children and thieves in his rural Murang'a home. Besides writing novels, Kiriamiti also owns and edits a newspaper, The Sharpener, which he established after the government ban on the Gikuyu version, Inooro, in 1995.
Kiriamiti has also embarked on a programme that seeks to counsel the youth in various Kenyan Secondary and College institutions on Behaviour change and role modelling. He is now a committed family man with a wife and 3 daughters.
Kiriamiti studied for and passed his Certificate of Primary Education (CPE) at the local primary school in Thuita Village. He was privileged to be among the first nine African students to join the dominantly‐white Prince of Wales School (now Nairobi School) at a time when most Africans could not afford the Ksh 1,080 school fees charged. Although Kiriamiti received bursaries as a gifted African student, he joined Prince of Wales school as a day scholar and stayed with his uncle in Bahati Estate in Nairobi's Eastlands where his elder brother Sammy stayed too.
His academic life at the Prince of Wales School was short‐lived though because in his last term as a Form One student, at the age of fifteen, he was expelled from school after being the ring leader in a student's strike. That marked the end of Kiriamiti's formal education in spite of pleas from his parents to take up schooling elsewhere.
Kiriamiti resulted to wayward behaviours, and by the age of twenty, he was already a known robber and in the police "VIP list", as he calls ‘the most wanted' police list. As a criminal, Kiriamiti went by the names John Khamwene, Charles Lukindo, Richard Mwangi, Albert Ngure, Albert Wanjohi, and Jack Zollo (a name which he later used for his fictionalized self in both My Life in Crime and My Life in Prison) among others.
In 1971, after a long cat and mouse game with the police, Kiriamiti was arrested and sent to jail for twenty years with forty-eight strokes of the cane. It is at Kamiti Maximum Security Prison and Naivasha Government Maximum Prison that his first novel, My Life in Crime, was written, and the initial ideas of My Life in Prison born.
Five months after the publication of My Life in Crime (in 1984), Kiriamiti was released on grounds of good conduct, having served thirteen out of his twenty year sentence. Kiriamiti's freedom however did not last long for two years down the line (in 1986), he was sent back to jail by President Moi's regime for allegedly being involved in what the government deemed a seditious movement meant to overthrow the government (Mwakenya).
This time Kiriamiti found himself head‐on with the law after Benga musician‐turned‐soldier, Hajullas Ochieng Kabaselle, implicated him in crime. Having had interacted with most of the brains thought to be behind the Mwakenya movement like Onyango Oloo, Prof. Katama Mkangi, Mwandawiro Mgangha, Joe Ombuor and others, Kiriamiti was a natural suspect to the authorities.
Resultantly, he earned himself a seven‐year sentence for the alleged involvement in a clandestine movement. However, he was released after four years, on 11 February, 1990 (the same day that South Africa's freedom icon, Nelson Mandela was released from Robben Island). As fate would have it, two days later, what was thought to be the political assassination of the Foreign Affairs Minister Hon. John Robert Ouko on 13 February, 1990 linked him to yet another ‘suspicious look' from Kenyans, as rumour had it that he "was released to kill Ouko".
Nevertheless, since his trading of the gun for a pen, and his subsequent release from Kamiti Maximum Security Prison, Kiriamiti has become a renowned philanthropist and social reformist rehabilitating street children and thieves in his rural Murang'a home. Besides writing novels, Kiriamiti also owns and edits a newspaper, The Sharpener, which he established after the government ban on the Gikuyu version, Inooro, in 1995.
Kiriamiti has also embarked on a programme that seeks to counsel the youth in various Kenyan Secondary and College institutions on Behaviour change and role modelling. He is now a committed family man with a wife and 3 daughters.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
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April 13, 2020I have wasted my time signing up thinking that you'll give me a chance to read the book. You should let people download pdfs of books.
August 21, 2020
All the Kiriamiti books are super epic; fast paced, thrilling, and cliffhanger, but this is a drag. I have tried unsuccessfully, five times, to read it till I gave up. Try it at the risk of boring yourself stiff.
My Life in Prison (2004) is the third novel in John Kiriamiti's Kenyan crime fiction series, following My Life as a Criminal, and My Life with a Criminal: Milly's Story. This series is loosely based on Kiriamiti's experiences as a young criminal in Nairobi, and was written mainly whilst he was in prison for robbery.[1]
The events in the book are narrated against the background of an alleged incident of brutality by warders on the prisoners, at Naivasha Maximum Security Prison on 24 April 1972.
My Life in Prison (2004) is the third novel in John Kiriamiti's Kenyan crime fiction series, following My Life as a Criminal, and My Life with a Criminal: Milly's Story. This series is loosely based on Kiriamiti's experiences as a young criminal in Nairobi, and was written mainly whilst he was in prison for robbery.[1]
The events in the book are narrated against the background of an alleged incident of brutality by warders on the prisoners, at Naivasha Maximum Security Prison on 24 April 1972.
May 17, 2021
Such an easy and interesting read. The story of a man that once was a criminal all reformed but boy, did he go through a lot.
The book gives a glimpse in the life of prison which is a whole other world and if given a choice, I'm sure many fellas wouldn't want the same. It serves as warning to young men and women for to not allow circumstances push them to crime.
The book gives a glimpse in the life of prison which is a whole other world and if given a choice, I'm sure many fellas wouldn't want the same. It serves as warning to young men and women for to not allow circumstances push them to crime.
February 28, 2019
I liked this book. It was not better than My life in crime but it definitely bridges the ending from it.
I learned a lot about how prisons operate. John is keen to explain the circumstance at hand, what he wants to do and the precautions and plans towards achieving it. From how he gets into the psych hospital and eventually escapes, I have to say that it was a solid plan to get out of prison.
He explores various challenges faced within the prison from mistreating prisoners, prison gangs and how the government plays their role (or not) in it.
I think what I found to be an anti-climax was that I had hoped for the entire story to be set in the prison. This meant I was looking at many stories like the one that happened on the 24th of March. Most events were fast-forwarded and I hope not much was not mentioned.
Overall, this book cleared the air on most of the suspense I had from the previous book. For instance Hellene. I totally recommend reading this book if you've read the first one.
I learned a lot about how prisons operate. John is keen to explain the circumstance at hand, what he wants to do and the precautions and plans towards achieving it. From how he gets into the psych hospital and eventually escapes, I have to say that it was a solid plan to get out of prison.
He explores various challenges faced within the prison from mistreating prisoners, prison gangs and how the government plays their role (or not) in it.
I think what I found to be an anti-climax was that I had hoped for the entire story to be set in the prison. This meant I was looking at many stories like the one that happened on the 24th of March. Most events were fast-forwarded and I hope not much was not mentioned.
Overall, this book cleared the air on most of the suspense I had from the previous book. For instance Hellene. I totally recommend reading this book if you've read the first one.
February 27, 2019
Love this book, but felt that it left out a lot.
September 8, 2019
I have searching for this book and finally av got it.. Best...
Want to read
November 10, 2019Write a review (optional)its a good book
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 2, 2019
Short of words
Currently reading
January 3, 2020Good book
February 23, 2020
John kiriamiti so perfect writer🙆
My life in prison so lite😍
My life in prison so lite😍
Read
March 4, 2020i love the book
May 17, 2020
One of the best stories I have read
May 23, 2020
Great
Read
July 26, 2020Can't read
Want to read
August 11, 2020I want to read the book not rating you
September 5, 2020
Can I borrow this book
November 10, 2020
Stupidity of the highest order. Just a Waste of my tym. Bullshit
February 15, 2021
Somehow, while reading this book, you get lost inside the Kenyan prisons and share the good and the bad with the inmates.
Want to read
April 16, 2021Starting from the first page
November 17, 2021
This book brings you to prison life and you get to see life in a different light.
Read
January 9, 2022I think the book will be more enjoyable than my life in crime and will be a continuation of what has happened in the precious books
Want to read
March 10, 2022I cannot read the book online
Read
May 14, 2022Love it
August 19, 2022
Interesting
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Read
January 8, 2023Hey can I read
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 9, 2023
I cannot believe that this is an account of real life events! John is the luckiest man alive! He keeps meeting the right people ,like that guy in mathare,what are the odds!
April 15, 2019
Kiriamiti kept me glued again just as he did with My Life in Crime.
Kenyan prisons must be or must have been real hell. Especially the massacre! I wonder how different it is now for inmates.
Kenyan prisons must be or must have been real hell. Especially the massacre! I wonder how different it is now for inmates.
January 16, 2022
Had a taste and wont mind another round of it
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews