A Kikuyu women's group has announced plans to start a car wash business in Ondiri for ex-convicts to keep them engaged and prevent them from going back to crime.
Speaking during a meeting on Sunday at the Ondiri Pentecostal Church, the chairlady of Ushirikiano Women's group, Violet Mburu said that most ex-prisoners are jobless and end up being neglected by the community after serving their sentences.
"Most of them are neglected even by their own families hence they become both jobless and homeless," she said.
She said that the group had identified 12 ex-prisoners in the area who have been abandoned by their families and have now been isolated to live in the streets.
"These individuals have changed, but the community doesn't give them chances to prove they are different people. Most of them may drift back to their previous lives of crime due to neglect by community members and their families," she lamented.
Mburu also said that most of them cannot secure employment because of their criminal records and the only thing they can do is to engage in their own businesses, but they lack the finance to do so.
"We have been talking to these ex-prisoners and because we see the determination they have for business, we are going to open for them a car wash business here in Ondiri," said the chairlady while urging residents to forgive and embrace them as equal members of the society.