Celebrating Christmas in jail

By Petride Mudoola

While the rest of Uganda celebrated Christmas with friends and family, prisoners had no choice, but to commemorate the day behind bars.

Unlike everyone else, prisoners do not look forward to shopping trips and fancy dinners in the finest restaurants and hotels during the festive season. They expect to attend church service on Christmas Day in their yellow uniform.

At Kigo Women’s Prison, decorations such as balloons and a Christmas tree brought the festive mood into the prison.

Were it not for uniformed prison warders escorting the prisoners, you could easily mistake the venue for a simple Christmas Day celebration out of jail. Most of the prisoners did not receive any Christmas presents from their friends or family.
 

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Female inmates at Kigo Women’s Prison prepare to cut a cake as part of activities to celebrate Christmas Day. (Photo credit: Petride Mudoola)

Faith amid challenges

To some, Christmas highlights the guilt of their crime, the dullness of prison life and hopelessness they feel. But to those who have found new life through Christ, it is a time to celebrate and express their faith.

Jailed for life, Betty Namalwa, 35, is serving her sentence at Kigo Women’s Prison after the High Court found her guilty of murder.

As an inmate leader, she is responsible for organising activities such as the Christmas Day meal. Dressed in a yellow dress and pink slippers, her plaited hair falls over her shoulders as she bends to serve the delicious Christmas meal.

“I came here 10 years ago. I hate how the incarceration has affected my family, especially during the festive season,” Namalwa said, as she struggled to hold back tears during the interview.

The mother of four said she misses her children and opening their Christmas presents. The prison’s department allows inmates’ relatives to visit and bring them food to celebrate Christmas.

However, Namalwa’s family members did not visit her.

“Some of them have not come to terms with the fact that they have to leave me behind whenever they visit. Some of them cry uncontrollably. It’s difficult imaging how people outside jail will be having a good time on that day, while I am stuck in a prison cell,” noted Namalwa.

She, however, found solace in other prisoners spending Christmas away from their families.

“Prison and school life are very much alike. You cling onto someone you like. You rely on them. If we see someone downcast, we try to love and help them. At the end of the day, it’s challenging for all of us,” she added.

Different from the usual meal of posho and beans always served in prison at 2:00pm on Christmas Day, the prisoners shared a meal of potatoes and beef.
 

Luzira Prison male inmates attending prayers in the facility. (Photo credit: Petride Mudoola)

The day’s messages

Similar to the outside world, different religious denominations held prayers to celebrate Christmas.

Presiding over the service, the chaplain of Kigo Women’s Prison, Christine Beyagala, noted that the festive period brings solace to hearts troubled by captivity. ‘

“The mission of the birth and death of Jesus Christ was to liberate people from bondage. All prisoners need to be liberated from the bondage they experience behind bars,” she stated.

“Despite the nature of crime you committed, we have all of at heart. We know you miss your dear ones and they too miss you, but your hearts and minds should be relieved, especially when you find that strangers are concerned and pray for you,” she added.

Beyagala urged the inmates to always keep their hearts liberated.

“Some of you are in prison for a reason. So, ask God why you were incarcerated,” she noted.

At Luzira Prison, Rev. Simon Omoding of St. John’s staff chapel, advised inmates to surrender their lives to Christ, saying He is the only one who knows why they are in jail.

“Surrender your lives to Jesus. The Lord knows your files, He knows your hearts and the challenges you go through. Jesus came to liberate you so that you leave prison a better person,” he noted.

Omoding’s message was derived from Luke chapter 2, verses 1-40.

“While you serve your sentences, do not forget to repent yours sins. Cast your burdens unto Jesus. Pray and ask God for forgiveness and make peace with the people you wronged. This will help you to reconcile with them,” he added.
 

Prisoners receiving Holy Communion during a service at Luzira. (Photo credit: Petride Mudoola)

Why celebrate in jail?

Wilson Magomu, the officer in charge of Luzira Upper Prison, said the prison’s authority use decorations to make the Christmas Day as festive as possible.

“We entertain prisoners with several activities, including music and sports. We just make it special,” he noted.

The Commissioner General of prisons, Johnson Byabashaija, said the prisons department has no specific budget to cater for prisoners during the festive season, but they work within the allocated budget to make the day memorable.

The prison’s publicist, Frank Baine, added: “The public is really opinionated about prisoners having Christmas. They always wonder why prisoners should celebrate Christmas.”

He added: “If we listened to some people in the community, then all we would be doing is releasing angry prisoners. But at the end of the day, it is the community that suffers,” he added.

Johnson Wavamunno, an inmate serving a life sentence for robbery and murder, said some of them ended up in prison because they were not mentored by the Church.

“We came to prison as sinners, but with the guidance of the prison’s ministries and rehabilitation services, we are now transformed and capable of living responsible lives,” he noted.

“My stay in prison has taught me a lot and given me an emotional experience that has made me renounce my old habits and embrace salvation. I want to use the rest of my days on earth to mend fences with God,’’ Wavamunno added.

While other inmates enjoyed Christmas celebrations, Hadijja Namyalo, an inmate of Luzira Women’s Prison, who was imprisoned while five months pregnant, gave birth to a baby boy.
 

Namyalo with her child born on December 25. (Photo credit: Petride Mudoola)

She told New Vision that she experienced the labour pains late in the night and informed prison officials, who referred her to Murchison Bay inmate’s hospital.

She gave birth to a baby weighing 4kg.

“I named my baby Mukisa because I have not face any challenges while in detention, yet the public expects prisoners to appear in tattered clothes,” Namyalo said.

The public thinks female inmates are made pregnant by male prison warders while in custody, but Baine refuted such claims. Expectant mothers are in prison because the law does not exempt them from arrest.