Fred Matiang’i pledges sweeping reforms in prisons

Cabinet Secretaries Fred Matiang’i and Amina Mohammed distribute assorted items to inmates at the Naivasha Prison. [Antony Gitonga, Standard]

The government has embarked on sweeping reforms targeting penal and borstal institutions.

Under the programme, all prisons will be supplied with water while inmates will each get a mattress and a blanket, a move away from the tradition where sharing was the norm.

This comes at a time the penal institutions have been turned into fertile grounds for criminal activities such as the formation of gangs.

Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i said the current situation had seen inmates radicalized and hardened, making it hard to integrate them into the community.

He said that under the reforms, warders would be retrained to handle inmates in a way that helps them reform.

“The inmates were brought to prison so that they could be reformed and not suffer and hence the move to introduce these reforms,” he said.

Dr Matiang’i spoke at Naivasha GK Prison where he donated mattresses, blankets, and food items to the more than 3,000 inmates.

He said that under the ongoing reforms, all inmates would also get a pair of new uniforms.

“We want prisons to be managed in a modern way and away from the colonial manner so that inmates can easily integrate into the society when released,” he said.

On Covid-19 vaccination, he said the first phase in the prisons was successful and that the government was keen to have the inmates and the warders get the second jab.

“We shall soon come back to the prisons with the Ministry of Health to administer another jab," he said.