By John Gerezani

There is a Kao proverb that says that lf you are walking in the Savannah and a lion threatens to attack, it’s prudent to climb a thorn tree and wait there for a while. It seems that is the mantra that Commissioner of Prisons Izzo and his deputy George adopted when they came into the neti department a year ago. The results of their management style are beginning to show.

As is customary with most managers who are confident of their ability, the commissioner hardly announces his visits to any neti beforehand, preferring to appear in a split second, catching everyone unawares and has managed to strike a very good rapport with netizens. He always makes it clear to his charges that he prefers the carrot approach while keeping the stick within reach, just in case.

Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka inspects a guard of honour at Naivasha Prison recently. Authorities need to develop innovative ways of engaging inmates in beneficial activities.

In such a way, chaps know that it’s incumbent upon them to behave if they don’t want privileges withdrawn.

His deputy, George hardly needs any introduction to those who have been keeping track of the reforms that have brought our Administration Police force to its present exalted status. All those reforms bear his signature and thus it’s laudable that the AP is the only unit that always has a warehouse full of uniforms, boots and other supplies at any given time.

I am not here to hero worship or bootlick, but to state facts as they are. For the first time in 15 years, smarters have been supplied with boots, socks, berets and full uniform including sweaters without bribing a quartermaster somewhere.

Second, for the very first time in the known history of the department, more than 200 qualified smarters have been admitted to undergo a promotional course to management level — again without parting with a single cent! They have been picked from all netis meaning that the representative exercise would easily meet the minimum threshold of any equal opportunity act.

However, the normal sideshows with claims of favouritism in the promotion of junior cadre officers still abound, but surprisingly, it is the local neti bosses taking the flak for recommending for promotion tribesmen and yes men without giving a hoot about competence and length of service.

Should lzzo and George stick to the script and do thorough vetting before confirming promotions, with due regard to regional representation, then the noises coming from some quarters will have been stymied.

Being qualified and competent is just one cog in a manager’s life. Riding the crest of the major challenges bedevilling the department and aligning it to its vision and core mandate is the harder part, especially against the backdrop of working with the very people whom the Madoka Commission recommended and the VP agreed that they were worthy of dates with Integrity Centre. Instead of being an ace critic that I can be when pricked, let me just wonder aloud in my power point wailing list so that l become a part of the solution.

Being one of the largest consumers of wood fuel in the country, why can’t the department grow it’s own trees, use biogas for cooking and lighting and harness solar energy for daytime lighting? The accruing multi-million shillings savings would be enough to run other programmes and earn me some pocket money.

Why should our disciplined forces buy imported boots of dubious quality when Kamiti Prison has the capacity to produce better quality boots?

Compare our sorry case to that of Tanzania, which sources all boots for its forces from Moshi Prison, which uses leather sourced from Kenya.

And as baba Jimmy and Agwambo reclaim the water towers, can Wiper also reclaim grabbed neti land so that we grow our own food and save gava the billions used annually to feed us?

Can’t we start hatcheries and poultry farms and export the produce in case the local market is saturated? What is stopping us from horticulture in our expansive and idle farms and earning a tidy sum in the export market?

But before that, my big men, assuming I am polygamous, yet you’ve only allowed me one visit per month, which wifey takes precedence?

Aren’t some of these colonial rules breaking families and making rehabilitation a pipe dream? And one final plea, why is good old Vaseline, and the kawaida loaf of bread marufuku? l don’t want to take dope please.