Cash-strapped Kenya government has initiated reforms in financial management of prisons service to enable the correctional institutions to generate more revenue from its vast resources and help become self-reliant.

The reforms are informed by the government’s inability to maintain close to 170,000 inmates in 134 dilapidated facilities that require a budget of Ksh464.8 billion ($3.6 billion) from the Ksh4.29 trillion ($33.2 billion) in the 2025/26 fiscal year.

Kenyan prisons have come under stinging criticism as dehumanising facilities that harden rather than correct inmates because of the squalor

Cabinet Secretary for National Treasury and Economic Planning John Mbadi has set up a taskforce to go round the correctional facilities in the country to collect views from the public and stakeholders on the proposed reforms.

Draft Public Finance Management (Prisons Enterprise Fund) Regulations, 2025 taskforce that was set up on July 30, 2025, is a multi-agency taskforce comprising officers drawn from the Kenya Prisons Service, Department for Correctional Services, Probation and Aftercare Services, Office of the Attorney General and Department of Justice and the National Treasury.

The taskforce members are Acting Director of Accounting Services at National Treasury Jonah Wala, who will chair the taskforce. The other members are Emmanuel Ndunda (Assistant Commissioner of Prisons), Samfantory Kyalo (Senior Superintendent of Prisons) and Peter Njoroge, Director of Prison Enterprises.

The taskforce is mandated to identify the legal, policy, administrative, institutional and operational constraints affecting the effective service delivery by the Prisons Service.

The taskforce is expected to complete collecting views in the next one month, whereupon the proposals will be forwarded to the attorney general’s office for drafting into law that will be taken before parliament for consideration as a Bill.

Speaking at the Kisumu Maximum Security Prison Kodiaga during a session to collect views from the stakeholders in the facility, Patrick Kariri, who is the officer in charge of the directorate of farms at Kenya Prisons Services, said the proposed guidelines will see the entity transform into a huge revenue generation organisation, which will also help improve infrastructure and services in the corrective facilities in the country.

“Training will be intensified at the facilities, which will help bring about prudent management of the prison facilities, which will in turn benefit inmates,” Kariri said.

The Draft Public Finance Management (Prisons Enterprise Fund) Regulations, 2025 proposes the establishment of the Prisons Enterprise Fund, which will be managed by a board of directors and a chief executive officer, who will be responsible for the day-to-day running of the fund.

The objective of the fund will be to source for and provide funds for the development of prisons enterprises, purchasing and maintenance of the prison’s equipment and machinery and source for market for finished products.

The National Treasury is proposing that upon establishment, the fund be issued with seed capital of Ksh4 billion or any other amount that parliament will deem fit to allocate to this Fund.

In the proposal, the board managing the fund will consist of, five principal secretaries from the ministry of correctional services, treasury, department of industry, ministry of agriculture and state department of vocational training or their representatives.

The commissioner of prisons and the head of probation services and aftercare will also be members. Also on the board will be two professionals in the field of industry and agriculture, both having an experience of over 10 years in their respective fields. The CEO will then be the secretary of this board.

This board will formulate policies and guidelines for the management of the fund`s activities, assets and finances, while liaising the relevant government bodies for the smooth running of the Fund.

It’s worth noting that the Prisons Services has large chunks of land, which can be developed for income generation and has also been running vocational training for the inmates in conjunction with the department of vocational training to equip them with skills to help them adapt to the outside world, when their jail terms end.

Kenya Prisons Service has been expanded to manage 140 penal institutions in the country – 134 facilities for adult offenders, three facilities for young offenders (two Borstal Institutions and one Youthful Correctional Training Centre).

Data from prisons services shows that current the prisoners’ population stands at 54,000, of whom 48 per cent are pre-trial detainees, while the remaining ones are already serving their prison terms. Staff numbers stand at approximately 22,000, comprising of uniformed officers and auxiliary staff.

The Kisumu Maximum Security Prison leads with a population of 7,000 including both staff and inmates.

The ongoing project of construction of decentralized sewerage treatment plants at the facility, will also provide an opportunity to reuse the wastewater as an input for other production to make products like briquettes.

• Tell Media / KNA report / By Mabel Keya-Shikuku