Kiambu Sub-County Community Service Order (CSO) Committee has observed that a one-day community service sentence cannot be a deterrent measure to punish petty law offenders.
According to Kiambu Principal Magistrate Charity Oluoch, who is also a member of the committee, the one-day sentence seems to be ineffective in deterring people from committing petty offences where she recommends a stricter sentence.
The magistrate who was speaking during a CSO committee meeting at the Kiambu probation office on Tuesday said ‘drunk and disorderly’ cases are the most common cases and are still on the rise despite the one day community service sentence.
Oluoch revealed that out of 1,135 recent cases that are currently being handled by the probation office for community service, 1,110 are for drunk and disorderly offenders out of which 1,053 are male.
"As per the CSO's observation, 99.5% of petty crime offenders were on a one-day direct placement. This suggests that the sentence doesn’t deter people from becoming repeat offenders," she observed.
She further claimed that the rising cases of drunkenness and disorderliness might have been due to lack of proper counselling of the offenders by the probation department which she says is no different even for the long term probationers.
"The fine should be increased from the current Sh500 and also the number of community service days increased to reduce reoccurrence," she proposed.
Kiambu Sub-County probation officer, Margaret Kemunto says it is challenging for a one-day probationer to be counselled adequately since most of the time is spent doing the work assigned.
Kemunto confirmed that the CSO project that started early this year to give Kiambu a facelift has been made successful through the community service done by probationers.
The officer explained that since the inception of the project a fishpond has already been constructed at the Kiambu probation Department compound.
She suggested that instead of the one-day sentence the probationers be given several days to deter them from committing petty crimes.