Bucket toilets to be done away with in Kenyan correctional facilities
By John Harry Ndeta

Kenyans correctional facilities are undergoing reforms targeting the eradication of the unhygienic, undignified bucket toilets as part of the ongoing reforms suggested by the Madoka led Task force on Prisons Reforms.

Top Prisons Officer Ben Njogah said the buckets prisoners used to relieve themselves overnight have now been replaced with flush toilets and showers.

He said this was part of the improvements being carried out by the Prisons Service as recommended in the Madoka Report on the state of the country’s prisons

Njokah who is the Rift Valley Provincial Prisons Officer told the press during a briefing on the ongoing improvements in the facilities that the Prisons department is also working hard to improve staff housing which has been a major challenge in virtually all their facilities.
A sizeable number of Prison staff across the country were said to rent houses in neighboring estates against regulations and work requirements that dictate that all officers must live within the prison’s precincts.

He said major housing projects are ongoing across the country as prisons are building additional housing under the Rapid Results Initiative (RRI) program where the department provides money for required materials while the prison’s instructors supervise their charges to build extra staff housing.

The RRI program, besides facilitating extra housing, is also used for the instruction of prisoners who wish to take up building arts as part of their rehabilitation. Those who excel in their work are facilitated to take the Government Trade Test while still in the prison and are given tool kits to start a new life as artisans once they have served their time.

Njogah said other works being carried out under the reform program include the refurbishment of different prisons, perimeter fencing in required areas, sanitation improvement and transport.

Prisons staff the media spoke to reported improvements in the Quarter Masters department of the service saying that they were now receiving new staff and prisoners’ uniforms and other service items regularly, unlike in the past.

The PPO said the Kitale GK Prison is also harnessing a local spring to improve on the facility’s perennially erratic water supply.

Kenya Prisons have had a long history of disease outbreaks caused by poor hygiene. Last year, about ten prisoners and a warder died following a cholera outbreak at the Nakuru Prison.

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