Principal Secretary for the State Department of Correctional Services, Mary Muthoni, responded to concerns raised regarding the plight of convicted mothers and their children while in prison.
In an interview with Nation, Muthoni stated that she had initiated talks to have cases involving such persons fast-tracked by courts of law.
According to the PS, protracted cases end up subjecting the children to undue suffering despite their innocence.
Further, the PS noted that the children face the risk of contracting communicable diseases owing to the conditions in most correctional facilities across the country.
In addition, she stated that children are deprived of their right to grow up in a complete family when their mothers are held in remand.
"I am imagining how the children will go for the next four years in case the mother is detained for that long," she stated.
“The children have not committed any offences."
In a bid to take care of the children, the PS mulled introducing daycare programs in the correctional facilities across the country.
The welfare of children who accompany their mothers in prison has been an issue of concern in the country and Africa by extension.
According to the Persons Deprived of Liberty Act (2014), children under the age of four years are allowed to accompany their mothers in prison in case of a sentence.
Whilst the law envisaged a situation where the children are accorded the requisite tender care, various reports indicate that such children are subjected to suffering and exposed to health risks.
In November 2022, a woman incarcerated at the Embu Women's Prison gave a shocking revelation of her experience despite having undergone a caesarean section.
