The Government has begun reclaiming prime land belonging to the Prisons department that
has been grabbed by its senior officers over the years.
Interior Cabinet Secretary Dr Fred Matiangi said an audit of the land owned by the State
Department for Correctional Services has implicated Ministers, PS and senior government
officials in the theft.
He announced that the Ministry in consultation with the National Lands Commission will
immediately embark on the process leading to the repossession of the land that was meant for
the expansion of prisons facilities.
“When you look at the list of the people who have stolen that land, it reads who has been a
Minister in charge of this department, a PS or a Commissioner-General in the prisons service
before. It is very shameful,” he said.
The CS lamented that the grabbing spree had been so extensive that in some prisons, whatever
remained was a tiny fraction of the original allocation and cited Yatta, Eldoret and Kapsabet
GK prisons as prime examples.
“I’ve just come from Yatta Prison in Machakos County. The facility has been reduced to 15
acres. The commandant was telling me that it feels like a student quarter. They are literally
squatting on land that essentially belongs to them!”
Other affected facilities include the Kapenguria GK Prison, Murang’a Juvenile Remand Home,
and Mwea GK Prisons among others.
To protect the remaining land from further grabbing, the CS said the government had launched
an “aggressive titling program” that will entail validation and collaborative land mapping in
consultation with the NLC and the Ministry of Lands to provide prisons with valid and secure
title deeds.
He was speaking after inspecting the progress of the construction of the Kenya Prisons Service
Hospital at the Prisons Staff Training College (PSTC), Ruiru.
The Level Four hospital is one of four specialized hospitals for the disciplined services that are
being constructed in the country in line with the Big 4 agenda investments in the health sector.