Prisons are supposed to be unpleasant places. People are there to be punished aren't they?

But what if a stay in prison were to include, say, being raped? Is that just?

Gross overcrowding, lack of conjugal visits - however long the prison sentence - and the brutal expression of power over other inmates are all cited as reasons for sexual exploitation of new prisoners.

But other factors are at work. There is the exchange of sexual favours between men in return for food and cigarettes. The environment is one in which many people are on the edge of starvation.

Officially it's denied that such activity goes on yet these are the true experiences of men in East African prisons in Kenya and Zanzibar today.

What compounds this horrendous problem is that attitudes to homosexuality in these countries means that the problem is never even discussed.

These ruined people may have done nothing more than steal a bicycle.

For the first time, male victims of homosexual rape talk about their experiences in a shocking indictment of neglect and violence.

Listen to the programme
	Listen to the programme

First broadcast in July 2005. Produced by Mariam Omar of the BBC's Swahili Service.