death row prisoners in Ukonga maximum-security prison in Dar es Salaam...

death row prisoners in Ukonga maximum-security prison in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, entered the fifth day of a hunger strike saying their human rights were being violated. The over 15 inmates complained of a poor diet and severe beatings in overcrowded cells. The prison authorities rejected the prisoners' claims. The Ministry of Home Affairs recently announced that conditions in the country's prisons had improved. 
Prison official Augustine Nanyaro said the prisoners were lying and the government had improved their diet. "They get the diet that has been prescribed in the prison's dietary scale. I think that those are just a few people who would like to smear some bad things on us," he said.
The Ukonga prison on the outskirts of Dar es Salaam was home to more than 3,000 inmates. Of these, 90 had been waiting for more than 20 years to be hanged, after the courts found them guilty of murder.
They said their appeals had not been heard and that some of them did not get any visits from their loved ones because their relatives thought that they had been executed.
The authorities admitted they had a problem but said it was the attorney-general who made the decisions.
"Death sentences for some time now have not been executed," said Nanyaro.
According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, efforts were being made to improve conditions in the cells in line with human rights demands. However, even Ukonga prisoners with shorter sentences alleged severe beatings. They also said that when searches for cigarettes and drugs were made, they were given rectal examinations.