The Principal Secretary for
Corrections Services Salome Beacco has laid bare key priority areas for her
department in 2025, including digitising services in all stations by the end of
the year.
In a tell-it-all interview with the media on Tuesday, Salome said all programmes in both the prisons and probation and aftercare services will go fully online before the end of the year.
The PS said her department in collaboration with partners is in the final stages of rolling out the massive digitisation campaign to take all programmes online.
"I am happy last year we formed a committee and developed a concept note which we submitted to the ICT department and we have now been boarded through a World Bank programme to digitise all our programmes in all the 136 prisons across the country,'' Salome said.
The PS said the department is keen to align with President William Ruto's agenda to digitise all government services to enable Kenyans to access services more efficiently and effectively.
Regarding plans to improve the
welfare of staff and inmates, the PS said her department is committed to ensuring
that male inmates have access to beds and mattresses to better their wellbeing.
Salome said just like their female counterparts who enjoy better bedding facilities, male inmates should have access to the same as part of the programme to improve their prison stay.
“All our female inmates are equipped with beds, mattresses and blankets, but not with male inmates. We have started a programme to help our male inmates improve their living standards as required by the Mandela Rules,’’ she said.
In his regard, Salome said the campaign includes adopting a triple-decker bed for male inmates as part of an aggressive push to improve their living conditions.
“We want to partner with our development partners, corporates and individuals to complete the project by the end of the year,’’ Salome said.
The PS said that her department is working hard to secure prison land that has been grabbed or encroached on across prison facilities.
She said a collaboration between her department, the National Lands Commission and the Ministry of Lands has borne fruits with the judiciary playing a key role in expediting cases.
“The recovery is not at the pace we would have wanted but it's a work in progress,’’ Salome said adding that some cases are still pending.
Last year, MPs were told that massive land owned by the prisons department across the country had been grabbed or was under threat of being irregularly acquired.
The PS noted that recovered
land is going into expanding the prisons department’s enterprises including
agricultural interventions like horticulture, seed growing and vegetation.
“We are committed to improving on our acreage under cultivation so that we can play a part in enhancing food production through orchard farming,’’ Salome said.
“Through the whole of government approach, we are helping farmers to buy certified seeds of various crops including potatoes through our orchard in Nyandarua.”
At the same time, the PS lauded ongoing interventions to decongest prison facilities across the country saying the move has seen the number of inmates reduce from 64,000 to 59,900.
She said her department is engaging governors in all 47 counties to take up petty offenders under probation to help with menial work in offices and markets.
The PS highlighted the department’s major milestones last year, saying the prisons managed to equip their workshops with modern equipment with the support of development partners.
The prison department is revered for its crispy furniture, most of which is used in government offices.
Salome observed that the government’s ongoing austerity measures affected the uptake of prison furniture by state departments last year.
“Most orders had been placed
but following the budget cuts, it meant that the furniture would not be bought
but we hope the situation would improve when budgets are reviewed this year,’’
she said.
