By Vicky Ntetema Dar es Salaam

Death row prisoners in Tanzania have entered the fifth day of a hunger strike saying their human rights are being violated.

Prisons in East Africa are notorious for abuses and poor conditions

More than 15 inmates at Ukonga maximum security prison in Dar es Salaam complain of a poor diet and severe beatings in overcrowded cells.

The prison authorities reject the prisoners' claims.

The Home Office 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.

Appeal delays

Ukonga prisons, on the outskirts of Tanzania's main commercial city, is home to more than 3,000 inmates. Of these, 90 have been waiting for more than 20 years to be hanged, after the courts found them guilty of murder.

They say their appeals have not been heard and that some of them do not get any visits from their loved ones because their relatives think that they have been executed.

The authorities admit they have a problem but say it is the attorney general who makes the decisions.

"Death sentences for some time now have not been executed," said Mr Nanyaro.

Reform

According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, efforts are being made to improve conditions in the cells in line with human rights demands.

However, even Ukonga prisoners with shorter sentences allege severe beatings. They also say that when searches for cigarettes and drugs are made, they are given rectal examinations.

Next week the government will distribute new yellow uniforms to all prisoners in the country, replacing their current white outfits.

A rehabilitation process is due to come on stream that includes vocational training.

However, the human rights issue in Ukonga prison is so sensitive at the moment that when I attempted to approach the building on Thursday, I was arrested.

After nine hours of interviews and a search of my bags it was established that I had not taken any photographs and I was released and warned that it was against the law to be within 100 yards of a prison without prior permission.

The prison is along a busy public road.