CORRECTIONAL SERVICES PS HOLDS MEETING WITH KPS LEADERSHIP, SPELLS OUT REFORM AGENDA

By Nicholas Kigondu and Pili Chimerah 

Correctional Services Principal Secretary Dr. Salome Beacco has challenged staff working at the Kenya Prisons Service to internalize values of discipline, integrity and transparency.

Speaking at the Prisons Staff Training College in Ruiru during a meeting with directors, regional prisons commanders and officers in charge, the PS said this will accelerate ongoing reforms aimed at transforming the department into a correctional service of excellence.

She said the department is in the right path towards the achievement of modern ways of correctional management that are blocks in building a sustainable and humane correctional system in Kenya.

“I want us to take this department to the next level. We are now aligned with international best practices,” the PS told the forum.

According to the PS, the department has taken the lead in the process of digitization of its services through the procurement of equipment such as computers, laptops, projectors, VHF radios and LCD screens to support the delivery of virtual court Services and also aided the onboarding of all payments in probation, prison industries and farms on E-citizen platform.

To improve healthcare in correctional facilities, 271 healthcare workers have also been recruited and deployed in different facilities across the country.

In the contribution towards the presidential directive of increasing forest cover by planting 15 billion trees by 2032, the Department planted more than 2,165,399 trees in the last financial year. 

The State Department for Correctional Services, Kenya Prisons Service (KPS) has also commissioned a Maize million plant and a weighbridge at the Naivasha prison and a Rice Milling plant at Mwea Prison which has increased food production in correctional facilities.

In efforts aimed at ensuring decent housing for prison officers, several units have been constructed including 12 units at Wundanyi Main, 12 units at Wundanyi Women, 6 units at Busia Women, 6 units at Kamiti Medium Prison, 100 units at Shimo la Tewa Maximum, and 50 units at Ruiru Prisons as the department seeks to construct 28,000 units across the country. 

Dr. Beacco informed the Kenya Prison’s Service leadership that President William Ruto remains committed to address the challenges facing the service to make it more responsive and aligned with the government’s bottom-up economic transformation agenda.

“I must mention that the Department managed to score to this level due to the unprecedented support that it received from the Government, other cooperating partners in various operational activities and more importantly the hard work that all of you demonstrated during the last financial year,” observed the PS. 

The PS assured the officers that concerns raised during the meeting will be addressed.  

“It is for the common good that the issues raised by officers are comprehensively addressed,” she assured.

The department has this month organized a training for officers in charge of prisons as part of planned capacity building targeting prisons officers.

She was accompanied by Commissioner General of Prisons Patrick Aranduh and other senior officers from the state department for Correctional Services and Kenya Prisons Service