Prisoners get shoes as State rolls out country wide reforms

By Wainaina Ndung’u

Nyeri, Kenya: Prisoners have something to celebrate about after the Government started supplying them with black leather boots.

The State guests at the penal institutions are being provided with free shoes in another round of prison reforms being rolled out.

For the habitually barefoot and shabbily dressed Kenyan prisoners, it will be good news since many are used to walking bare foot.

Prisoners at King’ong’o Prison in Nyeri welcoming Home Affairs Permanent Secretary Ludeki Chweya on Tuesday evening were donning the polished boots. The PS said a third of the prison population now have shoes.

“We are hopeful the whole population will have got their boots in the next two financial years to live a decent life in confinement,” said Dr Chweya.

Traditionally, prisoners only wore slippers supplied by their relatives or through their own means.

 Although there were no prison regulations barring wearing of shoes, those who owned a prized pair had to closely protect it from theft and prying eyes.

This might become a thing of the past if the Government programme is successful alongside a planned issue of two to three uniforms to create a better-groomed prisoner.

Chweya said once all prisoners are provided with the pair of boots, they would roll out the second phase of the reforms, including “a Sunday best.”