NAIROBI, Kenya Apr 26 – Interior Principal Secretary in the State Department for Correctional Services Mary Muthoni says the department’s reform agenda for improving the inmates living conditions across prisons countrywide is well on course.
PS Muthoni is spearheading an ambitious campaign dubbed ‘one prisoner, one bed, one mattress’ that targets to make the living conditions for inmates in prisons comfortable.
The campaign aims to improve the condition of prisoners across all the prisons countrywide with the department targeting to acquire 60, 000 beds and mattresses to support the campaign.
The initiative received a major boost on Wednesday after a well-wisher group named Tujengane donated 800 mattresses and blankets to the Industrial remand prison.
“This will soon become a dream come true,” she said.
In March 2023, the department also received 1, 000 mattresses.
Overcrowding in prisons in the country with a majority of them operating at more than double their capacity has been one of the major problems facing the prison system in Kenya and PS Muthoni is out to cure that.
She consequently appealed to other Kenyans of goodwill to join the initiative by supporting whichever way they can in the pursuit of bettering the living conditions of prisoners.
“Kenyans involvement will play a big role in the initiative’s success,’ she said.
She emphasized that accountability will be a key focus under her watch, as she will ensure that the respective prisons that receive the donations use the items.
“I want to assure all those who will donate that the items will be put to good use,’ she said.
PS Muthoni hopes that the campaign’s success will play a key role in making inmates’ lives more comfortable and creating opportunities for infrastructural development.
