After Abduba Dida vied for the nation’s presidency in 2013 and 2017, the former high school teacher gradually faded away from Kenya’s political scene and later traveled to the United States.
He was pursuing further education in the US, Dida found himself on the wrong side of the law after he was convicted of stalking and intimidation, two offenses that saw him land seven years in prison.
News about his sentencing contrasted with the values and principles that the ex-teacher and vocal politician identified with when he campaigned on a reformist agenda. Today, Dida is serving his second year in Prison at the Muddy Correctional Center, and his life has been nothing short of the vocal activism that he exhibited during his time in Kenyan politics.
According to documents seen by The Kenya Times, Mwalimu Dida, as he was referred to in some quarters, has sued the prison facility and its warden, Kimberly Hvarre, over the violation of his rights as a prisoner.
First it was a complaint of violation of his religious rights where he accused the facility in Illinois of not providing him with adequate opportunities to pray or to observe other aspects of the Islam religion.
According to the petition where Kimberly was named as a defendant, Dida alleged that despite being approved as a volunteer imam, he was only allowed one Friday prayer. He went on to state that the facility denied him prayers before and after sunrise and sunset, and that he was denied three additional prayers.
Upon complaining about the denial, he argues, the prison removed him from the volunteer program.
In addition, Dida told the Illinois court that he required a full shower on Friday before prayer, but he had been unable to arrange it. According to his petition, even a single drop of urine would nullify his prayer.
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But his predicaments don’t end with his religious rights and access to prayer facilities. In another petition, Dida moved to court seeking court intervention to allow him to continue with his studies.
Dida said that at the time of his arrest in 2021, he was beginning to take classes in a psychology doctoral program in the US.
His incarceration, however, dealt his ambition of earning his coveted academic achievement a blow since he required a computer and internet access to complete tasks and access resources online. According to Abduba Dida, the internet and a computer were his only hope of successfully conducting research and submitting research papers- arguing that many of the required resources were only available online.
Mwalimu Dida also wanted to take an exam which he claimed he had been unable to sit since 2022.
Another petition described an instance when the former presidential aspirant complained of a lack of access to treatment for swollen and painful feet. He had also sought treatment for numbness on the left side of his body in January 2023, among other dental and varied health concerns which he claimed the facility had refused to allow him.
The former politician is expected to spend more time in prison, with his two terms for the two offenses coming to an end in 2029.
As a newcomer in Kenyan politics, Abduba Dida shot to fame during the campaigns in the run up to the 2013 elections which he vied on an Alliance for Real Change party ticket. At the time, he said that the experience of his life motivated him to seek change which prompted him to throw his hat into the ring.
He faced seasoned politicians including retired President Uhuru Kenyatta and ended up finishing fifth in a race that had eight candidates on the ballot. He would later vie again in 2017 but failed to win the contested election.
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