Kenyan prison warders are threatening to start releasing prisoners unless they are paid a risk allowance of $80. They say they could free Maina Njenga leader of the outlawed Mungiki sect, which has been implicated in several gruesome murders. Several senior prison officers have been arrested over the strike, which began on Friday.

The government calls the strike a mutiny but has promised to address the warders' complaints.

They are guarding the prison gates and manning the watchtowers but are not working inside the prisons.

The warders, some of whom are paid $100 a month, also want a one-off payment of $160 for helping to quell the post-election violence earlier this year.

'Unacceptable'

Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka, who is also home affairs minister, visited a prison on Sunday to try to calm the situation.

"I would like to appeal to warders to continue with the usual duties with the full confidence that their minister, who is concerned with their affairs, has heard and responded to your pleas and the process of resolving your grievances has started," he said.

One prison officer told the BBC it was unfair that they had not been given the extra money, unlike other security services.

"The Kenyan police have been awarded the risk allowance of 5,000 [shillings, $80]. And now we're being put aside. And we're uniformed staff. Where do we fall?"

The BBC's Josphat Makori says many prisoner warders are living in mud huts, which they sometimes have to share.

"This is extremely unacceptable," the Standard newspaper quotes Mr Masyoka as saying.

"How does one expect married officers to share a room with grown children and single officers?"