Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki has pledged to modernise Kenya’s prison service systems if reappointed.
He said he aims to implement reforms that will improve prison conditions and enhance the well-being of prisoners and prison wardens.
"Part of the Maraga task-force report gave us a number of recommendations on modernising and reforming the prisons which we are taking up," he said.
"I have prepared a cap memo which had not been submitted to the cabinet but I am sure if I am reappointed, it will be a top priority."
He said among the reforms the will implement will be making the prison enterprises more productive by investing in better technology in their workshops to make sure they produce more competitive goods which are cheap.
"If they are empowered and given better equipment because of labour and skill is available, for carpentry, masonry and other skills, we are going to have better output and generate more revenue," he said.
He said he aims to improve welfare issues including the terms and conditions of service of prison wardens in line with the Maraga task force recommendations with consultations with the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC).
"We also are working on other issues for example providing mattresses. We have a programme called 'one prisoner, one mattress' of which up to now we have provided over 10,000 mattresses from our budget but also with the support of other partners and we want to ensure at least every prisoner has a mattress," he added.
Kindiki further said he plans to work on the housing issue for the prison wardens.
"We want to construct 28,000 houses, of which I think we have done 500 in different prison facilities, which should meet almost the entire demand because that is about the entire population of prison personnel,"
He also promised to address the issue of encroachment of prison land.
"There are certain serious encroachments on prison land with the most notorious being the Kitale Prison land where out of 3,000 acres only about 300 are available, the rest has been grabbed by powerful and former senior people in various administrations."
He promised to recover such land by engaging the National Land Commission and other stakeholders.
"Let me say that every prison land must have a title deed, many of our prison lands do not have titles and therefore we are going to protect such land through titling," Kindiki said.