President William Ruto has announced that the prison department will be empowered with equipment and implements to drive the country's food security plan.
The President who spoke during the commissioning of the prison officers cadets in Ruiru said the government will provide 7 tractors to prisons countrywide for farming.
The Head of State said the new approach will see the prisons department put more than 8,000 acres of their idle land into use to support the government's food sufficiency plans.
''We will provide 67 new tractors and other equipment to enable the prisons department to put 8,000 acres of land under production, that will support the government's program on food sufficiency," Ruto said.
The President said the prison department will be empowered to produce maize, rice, vegetables, and other produce that will support the government's programme on food sufficiency.
The prisons department is one of the government agencies with huge tracks of fertile land across the country in Eldoret, Nakuru, Kitale and Kilifi, Kiambu, and Kisumu, among other regions.
In 2020, the then Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang'i unveiled a radical policy to enhance and commercialise the farms for better productivity.
Farm and industry managers signed a commitment to make profits from the turnaround strategy that would see prisons supplied internally with various supplies like rice, maize and vegetables.
Other supplies would be English potatoes, sunflowers, and dairy products.
They were to be distributed to prisons, which would then pay using their allocation for food at prices much lower than by merchants.
Over 200 acres of Ngeria prison is under maize, with another 195 acres in Kitale. Some 300 acres is under preparation in Eldoret for maize growing this year.
At least 300 acres at Shikhusa prison generated 4,500 bags of maize sold at Sh12.4 million last fiscal year.
