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Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki says plans are underway to decongest correctional facilities in the country by half within the next year.

Addressing journalists at Harambee House in Nairobi on Wednesday, May 31, 2023, Kindiki said the ministry will engage the Judiciary and other stakeholders to facilitate the decongestion process.

“We are looking at decongesting prisons and we have given ourselves a target that we will decongest prisons by utilizing the constitutional route of the power of mercy. We will also use the CSO judge to ensure that petty offenders can be given suspended sentences,” Kindiki said.

He noted that some of the remandees on petty offences that do not harm society should not be in jail.

According to Kindiki, more than half of the inmates in Kenya are remandees and persons involved in petty offences.

“We have to decongest our prison facilities by half within the next one year.”

At the same time, Kindiki said the government had initiated a program to modernise correctional facilities as well as dignify prisoners.

“We have come up with a policy of not only improving the physcial infrastructure but also come up with a special program of one prisoner one bed one mattress,” he added.

According to the CS, the government has set aside Ksh1 billion to modernize prison workshops in the country in a bid to promote industrialization.

Kindiki said the move will ensure prisons are a place for rehabilitation, empowerment and preparation for reintegration back into society.