Harare, Zimbabwe – For convening what the police called an illegal gathering in Harare’s central business district, Parere Kunyenzura stayed 187 days in a prison cell last year without trial. Inmates came and left, but his enduring if unwanted companion was the powerful stench of human faeces and urine.
It was the worst at night when he and more than 100 other inmates were all locked up from 3pm to 6am. They piled up on the floor next to each other to share lice-infested blankets left behind by previous inmates.
