The country’s corrective institutions are holding 52,000 prisoners way above its capacity of only 16,000 prisoners, the Director of Probation and after- care Services Mr. Jerim Oloo has said.

Speaking while leading a team of senior officials from the Home affairs Ministry on a tour of the Ministry projects in Naivasha, Mr. Oloo said the Department of Probation and After Care has embarked on a programme to decongest the prisons in order to make them more humane and fit for human habitation.

Mr. Oloo said the programme seeks to decongest the prisons by having cases of prisoners who were jailed for petty offences and reformed prisoners placed before a judge for review of the sentence and can recommend that the offender serves the remaining period on Community Service as a means of paying back to the society. Mr. Oloo said out of the 52,000 prisoners in the country, 28,000 are remandees whose cases are still pending before court and added that many of these remandees are in custody for failing to meet the bail conditions.

He said the decongestion programme will seek to have the bond terms reviewed after the probation officer furnishes the court with a report about the accused to enable the court give the offenders affordable bond terms in line with the law.

“Many bail terms in our courts are high and cannot be afforded by the accused persons,” Oloo said.

Naivasha Maximum prison which is said to be the most congested and is set to benefit from this programme is currently holding 2781 prisoners against its carrying capacity of 913. More than 500 cases at this institution are set for review under this programme. The Naivasha Medium Prison which has a carrying capacity of 198 is carrying holding 699 remandees. The cases of Naivasha area will be reviewed by the Nakuru Resident Judge.

Mr. Oloo said the country currently has 13,000 people serving probation sentences and 15,000 others serving Community Service Order (CSO) sentences. The Director said contrary to some allegations from certain quarters that the CSO programme had failed, the programme been a big success in the country as over 100,000 people have successfully completed serving their sentences since its inception in 1999. Mr. Oloo said the programme which was introduced in the country in 1999 by an Act of Parliament is meant to help decongest the country’s penal institutions, while giving the offender an opportunity to give back to the community he has wronged.

“The programme also helps an offender to continue fending for their families as they serve their sentences and hence removes the trauma and alienation that comes with imprisonment, thus giving the sentence a human face,” he said.

The programme has helped to decongest the prisons while some of the community service work the petty offenders do has greatly helped to cut down the finances that would have been spent in the construction of projects such as schools, roads, dispensaries and other Government Institutions. The Community Service Order (CSO) programme National Coordinator, Senior Resident Magistrate, Mr. Lawrence Mugambi urged the courts to make maximum use of this programme in a bid to decongest prisons.

He said under the new programme to decongest prisons, offenders serving three years` sentence and below will be considered and those prisoners whose sentence is remaining less than three years but have reformed. Offenders who will not be considered in this programme are; those charged with robbery with violence and other capital offences, sexual offences, motor- vehicle theft and serious economic crimes offences.