All stalled housing projects in prisons will be completed within the next six months-Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i has said.
Speaking on Monday at the Nakuru GK prison, when he officially commissioned the newly completed 20 housing units for the prison officers, the CS said the government is committed to ensuring better housing of for all officers.
The CS also led the ground breaking for the construction of other 48 housing units to address the challenges of housing for prison officers at the facility.
He said this is in line with President Uhuru Kenyatta's Big Four Agenda.
“The government is committed to improving the welfare of prison officers and in the next six months there will be nothing like stalled housing projects in these facilities,” he said.
While noting that the 20 units had stalled for 11 years due to what he termed dishonesty among those tasked with the same, the CS warned that those who have a tendency to interfere with government projects will face the strict arm of the law.
He called on senior officials within the Ministry of Interior to ensure honesty in service delivery.
“We should be honest with ourselves as far as service delivery is concerned. It is not all about seminars and training. You can’t be sitting here in the office, or moving across towns in the name of seminars that do not add any value to the transformative agenda,” he said.
Matiang'i warned land grabbed that he is coming for them.
“We have heard that some land belonging to prisons has been grabbed and we will do all we can to ensure that is returned to enable expansion of the facilities. We will also look at how innocent children in prisons can get education through putting up ECD centres,” he said.
Nakuru Governor Lee Kinyanjui lauded the national government for setting up houses for officers.
“We will partner on the same with the national government to ensure we have ECD centres within our prisons so that innocent children also get education,” he said.