General News of Tuesday, 16 July 2013

Source: peacefmonline

Ken Kuranchie: Ghanaians are not civilised people

Chronicling the events that unfolded during his incarceration, Ken Kuranchie has expressed doubt about the civilization of the country.

According to him, Ghanaians have no right to call themselves “civilized people” after lamenting about the state and treatments meted out to prisoners across the nation.

He was critical about his experience at the Ho Central Prisons during his transfer from the Nsawam Prisons and explained on Oman FM’s ‘Boiling Point’ this Monday that: “when you see the treatment given to people [human beings]; at Ho prisons, we have no right to call ourselves civilized people.”

Meanwhile, the General Secretary of the People’s National Convection (PNC), making his submissions on the same platform, bewailed the nature of Ghana’s prisons and appealed to the authorities to improve the living conditions of inmates in the various prisons across the country.

In his view, Ken Kuranchie, Editor-in-Chief of the Daily Searchlight should document his 10-day experience after being declared contemptuous of court following a publication in his newspaper.

The publication, which was deemed distasteful, and a way to probably discredit the nine-member panel sitting on the ongoing election petition case saw the newspaper editor sentenced to prison for 10 days together with a member of the ruling NDC communication team, Stephen Atubiga, who was also sentenced to 3 days imprisonment for similar reasons.

Ken Kuranchie’s release from prison has since brought into light the issue about the conditions of prisoners in the country.

This, therefore, engendered comments from the PNC General Secretary who expressed strongly that the fate of prisoners is compounded by health hazards due to the bizarre and unkempt nature of prisons in the country.

According to him, the situation is “no more about just taking people through punishment, but it’s about inflicting even health problems on them.”