The State Department for Correctional Services plans to undertake an ambitious program entitled 'one prisoner, one bed, one mattress' countrywide to alleviate terrible conditions in jails.
On Wednesday, the agency requested 60,000 beds and mattresses to help with the campaign.
According to Senior Secretary Mary Muthoni, the effort would aim to realign the department's operations to those of a correctional facility.
You must understand that confining someone inside those four walls after receiving a sentence is the harshest punishment a person can receive. Our job is to fix things, added Muthoni.
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She was giving a speech at the International Women's Day celebrations she hosted for First Lady Rachel Ruto inside the Langata Women Maximum Security Prison.
"In this country, we no longer want anyone sleeping on the floor. The PS advised that you return and make your bed if you're going to change the world".
Muthoni stated that the department would enable prison-run workshops to prepare beds but made a fundraising request to fill the funding deficit.
"As the Department of Correctional Services, we are making our beds. When the prisoners' ribs hurt from lying on the floor, how can you expect them to sew"? The PS asked.
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She emphasized that the department is committed to offering care and exemplary services to prisoners to fulfil the responsibility to correct rather than punish them.
According to Muthoni, the agency has only received 1,000 mattresses out of the 60,000 needed nationwide.
The PS also urged the Court to expedite cases involving mothers detained alongside their kids.
She voiced worry that there were innocent youngsters incarcerated.
"Children are particularly prone to infections, mannerisms and all that," she noted.
The event's keynote speaker, First Lady Rachel Ruto, introduced the Carakana Project, a program to teach women prisoners various skills, including cross-stitching.
She promised to carry out the project, which is a continuation of her 2016 effort in which women at the Lang'ata Women Maximum Security Prison learned how to cross stitch and were able to support themselves via it on a national scale.
She said that since 2016, the Carakana Project had taught more than 1500 women, producing quality artefacts worth Sh5.15 million.
"Cross stitching gives the women in jail a sense of optimism. The First Lady stated that it provides them a sense of accomplishment, dignity, and a means of support from their families".
