Women's prisons to get day care centres

All women prisons countrywide will be equipped with day care centres to improve the welfare of the children born in the correctional institutions.

Interior Chief Administrative Secretary (CAS) Winnie Guchu, said children as young as one month, live with their jailed mothers in deplorable conditions.

Speaking on Thursday at Embu Women Prison during the official opening of the first day care centre, Ms Guchu said the government was partnering with Faraja Foundation to achieve this goal.

Faraja has already provided 2,160 beds to be distributed to all the 43 women prisons in the country.

The CAS lamented that the children sleep with their mothers on cold floors in crowded prisons due to lack of enough beds, noting that this could easily expose them to contagious diseases including Covid-19 and tuberculosis.

Jail terms

“These children should have a place in prison where they can sleep and be fed well by officers employed by the government until their mothers complete jail terms," she said.

At the same time, Ms Guchu ordered the Commissioner of Prisons Wycliffe Ogallo to consider lifting a ban on visiting of prisoners.

She observed that inmates were suffering psychologically because their relatives are not allowed to visit them.

"Visiting was banned when Covid-19 hit the country and prisoners have been complaining. The commissioner should find ways of lifting the ban," she said.

She observed that prisoners don't have enough soap and toilet paper because they can't access them from their relatives.

She wondered how prison authorities expected inmates to survive without the required items.

“Government can't provide everything to the inmates and relatives who want to help them should not be locked out," she said.