Naivasha, Kenya: The education programme at Naivasha G.K prison continued to excel when the penal institution produced one of the best KCPE candidate in Naivasha sub-county.
The institution entered history books yet again when the first woman inmate to sit for the exams in the prison emerged as the top candidate with 394 marks.
It was song and dance in the penal institution as the warders joined the inmates in celebrating the results a day after the exams were released.
According to the results, two inmates scored 350 marks and above, 11 had between 300 and 349 while another 11 had between 250-299 marks.
Twenty year old Esther Wanjiku Wamaitha from the nearby Naivasha Annex prison and who is serving four years for stealing garnered an impressive 394 marks.
Wamaitha was in tears after receiving the news from the prison management terming this as the best day for her while in incarceration.
"The education programme has truly reformed me and am ready to continue with the secondary education as I serve my sentence," she said.
At the main Naivasha G.K prison a death row inmate Stephen Robe was the best candidate after he scored 363 marks.
The 34-year-old inmate attributed the success to hard work, prayers and assistance from fellow inmates despite tens of challenges in the prison.
"We are learning under harsh conditions in the prison but we have made it and this is part of the ongoing reforms," he said.
The officer in charge of the prison Patrick Mwenda was full of praise for the candidates adding that they had done the penal institutional proud.
Mwenda said that plans were underway to pardon bright and reformed prisoners as part of encouraging them to focus on education.
"We have come to identify education as one programme of reforming inmates and we are committed to supporting the inmates in school," he said.
He identified challenges facing the education programme as lack of teachers, learning materials and space adding that currently there were 1,360 inmates in the education programme.
"We currently have the highest number of inmates taking vocational courses as part of the ongoing prison reforms," he said.
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