The Justice and Legal Affairs Committee chaired by  Hon. George Murugara (Tharaka)  met with officials from the Kenya Prisons Service (KPS) to deliberate on the management and administration of the Kenya Prison Enterprise Fund.

 The KPS team was led by the Commissioner General of Prisons Brigadier (Rtd) John Warioba and the Senior Assistant Commissioner General of Prisons Mr. Patrick Aranduh. 

Brig. (Rtd) Warioba told the Committee that Kshs.30.8 billion was allocated for offender services and capacity development for the Financial Year 2022/23. Out of this amount the Service has spent Kshs. 25.5 billion.

The Committee was also informed that the National Treasury allocated Kshs.1.7 billion for clearance of historical recurrent pending bills which had been surrendered back to the National Treasury in FY 2021/22.

 The Service has a total of 148 stalled projects with outstanding completion costs totaling Kshs.3.3 billion. These projects have been prioritized for completion in the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework between the Financial Years 2023/2024 and 2026/2027.

In addition, the Service outlined some of its challenges which include a shortage of housing with 7,000 decent housing units against a staff population of 32,000. It was, however, noted that this matter is being addressed by the ongoing Maraga Taskforce for National Police Service (NPS), Kenya Police Service (KPS), and National Youth Service (NYS). 

The Commissioner General, however, told the Committee that contrary to media reports there is no food crisis in the prisons.