Alice Macharia: I can barely afford Sh18,000 price of my book
Magistrate Alice Macharia.
When Magistrate Alice Macharia wrote a book about the rights of children and mothers during sentencing, she expected that it would be readily available to readers and assist in shedding light on the subject.
The 192-page book, the Rights of the Child, Mothers and Sentencing: The Case of Kenya, was published in the UK and US by Routledge Publishers, and she got a shocker when she went to buy the book at the online store Amazon. It was being sold at $173.98 (Sh18,641), with a cover price of $160 (Sh17,160) plus shipping costs of $13.98 (Sh1,499).
“The book was too expensive even for me,” Dr Macharia told the Sunday Nation.
The book draws international attention to the autonomy of children accompanying incarcerated mothers and those they leave behind in the community, despite being dependent on the convicted caregiver. It is a valuable resource for academics, researchers and policy-makers working in the area of international children’s rights law and criminal law.
She complained to the publisher about the cost, but “they wondered why I was raising an issue yet the book is selling like hot cake”.
Expectant mothers
Yesterday, Amazon indicated that only two copies were available
“After writing to the publishers, they have informed me that that they will consider a fair cost for the book, especially for the African continent, where I raised an issue that it might not retail at such a price, which I believe is high,” Dr Macharia said.
The magistrate says that she was prompted to write the book by challenges she faced when sentencing mothers.
“I felt challenged when sentencing expectant mothers to custody. I always asked myself, what crime did the children who went into custody with their mothers commit? The other troubling issue was; what crime did children left alone at home after their mothers were sentenced to custody commit?” Dr Macharia observes.
She recalls a case in which police officers presented a woman accused of selling the illegal brew chang’aa. She had a young child. When she was sentenced, no one had done due diligence to find out that she had three other young children left at home without care.
“We have to ask ourselves how many children are suffering because of convicting their mothers to custodial sentences yet we have alternatives provided in law. My book is dedicated to the babies and young children accompanying their incarcerated mothers, as well as the dependent children left behind by caregivers as they serve their custodial sentences,” she says.
During her research for the book, she found out that over 80 per cent of mothers in custody are suitable for non-custodial sentences if due diligence was applied before sentencing them to custody.
She recalls coming across a woman who was born in custody in a London jail, then later on got incarcerated in the same jail and gave birth while in custody.
Compensation
“Custodial sentences help in destroying the family fabric and punishes autonomous innocent children who depend on convicted mothers,” she says.
The magistrate laments that while there are several non-custodial measures recognised in Kenya — which include probation, community service, fines or compensation — the local judicial system is too quick to punish mothers.
Dr Macharia is seconded to the Judicial Training Institute, where she handles the training of judicial officers. She has an extensive knowledge of the criminal justice system, having worked with the police, the Probation Department and State Law Office as part of her work.
Prior to joining the Judiciary as a magistrate in 2012, she had worked in the Attorney-General’s office as a State Counsel.
The Magistrate currently sits in the National Council for the Administrative of Justice Task Force on Children Matters, which is currently reviewing the Children Act, and also in the committee that is developing a training curriculum and guidelines for child care.
She has a PhD in Laws Research from King’s College London, a Masters in Law from the University of Nairobi and an undergraduate degree in law from Moi University.
