Government officials have been challenged to help decongest Kenya jails by initiating development projects.
“Peace and order will remain a mirage unless we assume the role of starting projects that boost the economic and social wellbeing of citizens. That way we will have few people going to prison for crime,” said the Chief Administrative Secretary for Devolution and Asals, Abdul Bahari.
He noted that when people are economically empowered, they hardly engage in crime.
“It is also a relief to the state as the huge resources used to maintain high number of prisoners will go towards gainful activities that serve to improve peoples’ lives,” he said.
He was speaking on last Friday at Kwa Ndaki earth dam project in Mutha Ward of Kitui South Sub-county.
It was built through a partnership between the National Drought Management Authority and the County government of Kitui at a cost of Sh28 million.
He said he was impressed that not only had the dam, with the capacity of 150,000 cubic meters, alleviated water scarcity but it had also empowered the locals.
“If you leverage on the presence of this dam to the maximum by taking up agribusiness, tree planting and pasture growing, soon we will be having a numbers of millionaires in your midst,” Bahari told the community members present.
The CAS, who was conducted in the tour of the project by the Kitui County NDMA coordinator Francis Koma and the Mutomo deputy County commissioner Ronald Enyakasi, said the standard of the workmanship epitomises value for money. He said ensuring cost effectiveness could not be gainsaid.
He lamented that hundreds of millions of shilling were being pillaged from government coffers to people's pockets instead of being used to positively transform lives as is the case with the Sh28 million invested in the Kwa Ndaki dam project.
“It is for that reason that I am calling on all Kenyans to join presidents Uhuru Kenyatta in his efforts to eliminate corruption that has denied the much need services and development,” said Bahari.