The government has announced plans to end hiring of outsiders to head prisons and other disciplined units in the country.
Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki yesterday told MPs that prison officers will be allowed to assume leadership of their respective units at the Kenya Prisons Service.
Kindiki said this comes following a new policy shift adopted by the government.
According to the country's security boss, the new policy will also be applied to other disciplined units to ensure officers get the opportunity to scale up the ladder.
"It is demoralising for hardworking officers when someone is taken from another disciplined service to head prisons," Kindiki said.
"This is the last time we are going to have officer from another disciplined service leading the prisons service."
The proposal, he disclosed, is among the radical recommendations of the Presidential Task Force chaired by retired Chief Justice David Maraga.
The Maraga-led-task-force according to Kindiki will submit its report to the president next week.
Currently, prisons service is headed by a former military officer, Brigadier (Rtd) John Warioba.
Retired President Uhuru Kenyatta in 2021 appointed Warioba to replace Wycliffe Ogallo after a jailbreak at the Kamiti Maximum Security Prisons.
This is not the first time, a military man is heading a disciplined unit. In 2010 the late President Mwai Kibaki picked Mohammed Hussein Ali from the military to head the Police.
Kindiki spoke when he appeared before the National Assembly National Cohesions and Equal Opportunity Committee, to appraise the lawmakers on the employment diversity in the Kenya Prisons Service (KPS).
The CS was accompanied by the Prisons boss Warioba.
According to a report, Kalenjin and Kikuyu account for highest number of prison officers at 11,058
The report tabled before a parliamentary committee shows that both Kalenjin and Kikuyu take up a lion share of 5,723 and 5,335 respectively.
Kamba and Luhya, follow closely with a significant number of 3,278 and 2, 891 respectively.
In total, there are 31, 227 officers out of which 23,878 are male officers while 7, 359 are of the opposite gender.
Kisii has 2, 536 whereas Luo has 2, 684.
Ethnicities with the lowest representation are Rendile (62), Orma (75), Taveta (39) and Dorobo (27) among others.
Elmolo has (3), Kenya European (1) and Kenya Arab (1).
The composition of the officers from lower to senior level indicates that junior officers account for 28,955 which is the rank between constable to senior sergeant while those in the middle level (inspector to chief inspector) are 1,673.
Those who have attained the ranks from superintendent to Commissioner General are 599.
Until August 2010, the report reveals, there was a total of 20,847 officers with Kalenjin dominating at 4,184 as Kikuyu followed with 3,676.
Luhya came third with 2,097, Luo (1,709), Kisii (1,438) and Meru (1,163).
In the last three recruitments in 2019, 2020 and 2022, some 7, 161 officers were enlisted into the service where the three most populous communities also got the highest opportunities.
Kindiki had appeared to explain about the number of prison officers in terms of gender, ethnicity and age.
He also explained extent to which the prison service has complied with the Constitution on allocation of 30 percent of procurement opportunities to persons with disabilities under AGPO.
The Committee is chaired by Mandera West MP Aden Haji Yussuf
He was quick to defend the imbalances in the job opportunities even as he assured, they are going to relook at the inclusivity not only in prison but also in the police service during the upcoming recruitment.
Responding to questions from members, the CS cautioned against criminalising larger communities.
"I will sit with my team, we have to comply but we do not want to have other communities to feel excluded," he stated.
He added, "We will have the populous communities get more positions and at the same ensure that minority groups are also allocated slots than getting zero," he said.
Kindiki committed to ending corruption in the recruitment in all departments within the ministry of interior
He said they are reassessing their anti-corruption strategy despite the challenges in seeking to combating it.
“It is a bit difficult but I want assure the members of this committee that we shall end it, we also want to encourage members of the public to give us information,” he said.
“We shall sit with the commissioner general and the principal secretary to see what we can do.”
On the implementation of the 30 percent of procurement opportunities, Kindiki admitted to having challenges citing reduction in budgetary allocation and undue influence in the procurement process.
He stated that save for 2020-21, they have not been able comply due to Covid-19 outbreak
Use of proxies by bidders who do not qualify under these categories and non-perfomance of the awarded tenders, contracts and quotations due to lack of financing are the other causes.
He however proposed more allocation to the institution to meet this and customer sensitisation of bides that fall under the categories.
“We need to mitigate use of proxies, proper due diligence should always be done on the applicants,” he submitted.