The government is set to initiate reforms in the financial management of the Prisons Service to make the entity generate more revenue from its vast resources and help finance its activities.
To this effect, the Cabinet Secretary for National Treasury and Economic Planning John Mbadi set up a taskforce on July 30, 2025 to go round the correctional facilities and collect views from the public and stakeholders on the proposed reforms.
The Draft Public Finance Management (Prisons Enterprise Fund) Regulations, 2025 taskforce is made up of a Multi-Agency Taskforce comprising of officers from the Kenya Prisons Service, State Department for Correctional Services, Probation and Aftercare Services, Office of the Attorney General and Department of Justice and National Treasury.
The taskforce members include the Ag Director of Accounting services at the Treasury Jonah Wala, as the chair. 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 team 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 Prisons- Kodiaga during a session to collect views from the stakeholders in the facility, Patrick Kariri, who is in charge of the Directorate of farms at Prisons Services, said the prosed rules and guidelines will see the entity transformed 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 prudent management of the prisons 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 is 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 an initial capital of Sh4 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 with an experience of over 10 years in their respective fields. The CEO will then be the secretary of the 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.
The Kenya Prisons Service has been expanded to manage 140 penal institutions in the country: 134 facilities for adult offenders, three facilities for youthful 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, while their staff establishment stands at approximately 22,000, comprising of uniformed officers and auxiliary staff.
The Kisumu maximum prison has a population of 7,000 including both staff and inmates.
The ongoing project of construction of decentralised 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.
