Interior Cabinet Secretary Dr. Fred Matiang'i, on Thursday, April 28, called for the release of 5,000 prisoners beginning next month, citing congestion in Kenyan correctional facilities.
Speaking during the induction of probation officers at the Kenya School of Government, Matiang'i explained that the new directive is part of a decongestion programme involving the Judiciary and Prison Services.
He noted that the majority of the inmates were jailed for petty crimes and recommended that they be put on probation. Nonetheless, this will not be available to those serving capital offences, sexual, economic and drug-related offences.
“I hope in the next phase of the decongestion campaign between May and June, we will get out about 5000 or so of petty offenders so that we can move them into the probation service program,” he remarked.
The Interior CS noted that the ministry, especially the Department of Correctional Services was working on limited resources, adding that holding petty offenders would further stretch its financial muscle.
"We are keeping some of them because of a Ksh600 fine for a traffic offence! We are keeping some matatu violator who packed on a yellow line. Are we serious? We don’t have the resources to keep the number of offenders that we have," he reiterated.
He added that the department had trained enough probation officers who will still see that the offenders still face the law without having to spend time in prison. However, he noted with concern the tendency of convicts to become repeat offenders.
“A second time and third time and fourth term offenders are evidence that our after-care work is not very successful.
"The character of success in this work will be demonstrated by a reduction of repeat offenders amongst us and how active the after-care members become in their societies and how well they become integrated," he added.
The CS stated that chiefs, their assistants, religious leaders and the National Government Administration will partner with probation officers in the prisoner's integration programme.
The Chair of the Community Service Order National Committee Justice Cecilia Githua noted that in 2022, 3,000 inmates have been freed to undertake community service, with more expected to be released beginning May 2022.
Kenya's prison population currently stands at 53,438 - 30,689 are convicts serving time while 22,799 are inmates confined to the institutions.
Under the Community Service Orders Act, petty offenders and those with three or fewer years remaining in their sentences can be committed to community service.
