Youths aged between 19 and 35 years are the dominant employees in the Kenya Prisons Service, a report by the Interior Ministry shows.
The report tabled by Interior Cabinet Secretary Kindiki Kithure on Thursday shows that there are 16,871 prison officers in the age bracket working in the service out of a total of 31,227 officers.
The report tabled before the National Cohesion and Equal Opportunity Committee chaired by Mandera West MP Aden Haji Yussuf shows that officers aged 28 years are the highest population in the prison service at 1,927.
They are followed closely by 29-year-olds at 1,836, twenty-seven-year-olds at 1,719 and 30-year-olds coming in fourth at 1,495.
Twenty-six and 31-year-olds almost evenly matched in number at 1,282 and 1,279 respectively followed by 34-year-olds at 1,178.
The other age groups with over 1,000 staff members are 33-year-olds (1,149); 32-year-olds (1,071); and 35-year-olds at 1,061.
All the other age groups have less than 1,000 staff in the service with 19-year-olds being the least (2); 20-year-olds (72); 61 and 62-year-olds (4 each) while there is only one officer aged 63 years.
Kindiki had appeared before the committee to explain the number of prison officers in terms of gender, ethnicity and age and the extent to which the prison service has complied with the Constitution on the allocation of 30 per cent of procurement opportunities to persons with disabilities under (AGPO).
The report he presented before the lawmakers showed that male officers dominate the service at 23,878 compared to 7,349.
It showed that the Kalenjin and Kikuyu communities are the most populous communities in the service at 5,723 and 5,335 respectively.
The Kamba community comes a distant third at 3,278 followed by Luhyas at 2,891 while the Luo are the fifth most populous at 2,684.
On promotions, Kindiki told the committee that KPS has complied with Article 54(2) of the Constitution by promoting 92 officers with disabilities.
These include three Senior Superintendent officers, four Superintendents, five Chief Inspectors, 10 Inspectors, 14 Senior Sergeants, 12 Sergeants and 44 Corporals.
"Further, KPS has complied with Article 54(2) of the constitution by availing equal training opportunities for 30 PWD," Kindiki said.
The senior management level has 599 officers (462 males and 137 females).
Mid-level management level has 1,673 officers (1,251 males and 422 females) in the ranks of Inspector (IP) to Chief Inspector (CIP).
Junior level management (Prison constables to Senior Sergeants) has 28,955 officers (22,165 males and 6790 females).
Kindiki further revealed that the Kenya Prison Service has over the last three years (2019/2020/2022) recruited 7,161 officers, 5,036 of whom are male while 2,125 are female.