Kamiti Maximum Prison inmates at a past function. Image courtesy of nation media
IRENE NGINA
Deputy Commissioner of Prisons James Kodieny said that there are 55,359
inmates in Kenya's prisons.He added that the prisoners are held in 118 facilities countrywide.
“New prisons are being constructed and the old ones are undergoing modernization and refurbishment,” he said.
Addressing commissioners at the 57th ordinary session of the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR) in Banjul, Gambia, Mr Kodieny said 1,714 inmates have died in prisons over the past five years.
The largest number of inmate deaths was reported in 2013, when 623 males and nine females died.
He said the inmates died from health-related causes, natural causes and suicide.
ACHPR Commissioner Med Kagwa had sought to know why a high number of inmates died in prisons.
Mr Kodieny said the government has embarked on a project to decongest prisons.
“The department has been working closely with (the) National Community Service Order Committee so as to decongest the prisons through community service orders,” Mr Kodieny said.
He said the department had entered into an agreement with the Swedish Prisons and Probation Services, the Raoul Wellenberg Institute and the Aftercare Services to improve rehabilitation of offenders.
“The government has also invested in detective equipment to ensure that those in custody do not conceal weapons that could endanger the lives of (their) cellmates,” he said.
