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The Kenya Prisons Service (KPS) Commissioner-General Brigadier (Rtd) John Warioba and the Principal Secretary in charge of Correctional Services are headed on a collision course after the former demanded he be given back his powers to control the finances of the department.

While appearing before the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee (JLAC), Warioba shocked MPs when he told them that he has been made a beggar in his own office as he is neither able to order for any repairs to be done whenever it is requested nor is he able entertain his officers when they perform well as he has no control over funds.

Warioba said he has to wait until the PS in charge approves the requisitions he has made a process which he said could take a long time thus putting the security of the prisons department at risk.

The Prisons Service comprises the Prisons headquarters, Prisons Staff Training College, eight regional commands and 133 stations across the country.

“I end up being a beggar for the funds allocated to us. Kindly give us some autonomy because that is the only area we have issues with and it is an urgency that the PS may not see,” he said.

He added: “As of now I only need to do procurement at my place and submit the returns to the PS for accountability. I cannot even buy a cup of tea for my officers without the approval of the PS.”

In his presentation before the committee, Warioba said that the current arrangement where the PS is the one who authorizes all the transactions had distorted the chain of command, led to increased pending bills as well as put the penal institutions at risk thus jeopardizing the security of both warders and prisoners.

He said that decentralization of procurement and financial autonomy would allow him to undertake all the procurement of goods and services required in a timely manner.

“The problem that exists between the PS and the KPS Commissioner-General is that the PS fails to recognize that my office has to take procurement of certain goods that are security in nature and may not need to go through the normal procurement,” he said.

He added: “ Mr chairman as of now I cannot do anything even in situations of emergency.”
Old arrangement

Warioba while asking the committee to intervene to have them revert back to the old arrangement, regretted that the centralization of all procurement for prison headquarters and stations in Nairobi had crippled the operations of the service due to perennial delays and duplication in procurement processes in the acquisition of critical goods and services that are meant to facilitate efficient service delivery.

He pushed for the adoption of a system like that of the National Police Service (NPS) which currently is controlling its own budget saying this is the only way the current mess at the department can be addressed.

NPS started controlling its own budget after President William Ruto when he assumes office following his swearing-in last year issued an executive order assigning the Inspector-General of Police the autonomy-

Authority to Incur Expenditure (AIE) over the funds allocated to the police service. Previously, any monies allocated to the police were administered by the Interior PS who was the accounting officer of the said department.

The prison service is under the State Department for Correctional Services and in the 2022/23 financial year, it was allocated Sh30.9 billion which included Sh30.3 billion in recurrent expenditure and Sh534.5 million as development expenditure.

Following the move the committee led by Tharaka MP Goerge Murugara promised to intervene by writing to the office of the president to request a reorganization of the government to allow the prison department to get its financial autonomy to enable it to deliver its service in a more efficient manner.
Dadaab MP Farah Maalim sought to know whether the department is required to seek authority from the PS even on small purchases.