Gov’t To Kick-Off Phase 2 Of COVID-19 Vaccination In Prisons

NAKURU,Kenya, Dec, 10 – As the government aims to vaccinate at least 10 million Kenyans by the end of 2021, plans are underway to ensure inmates and prison warders receive their second jab of the vaccine. 

While touring the Naivasha GK Prison,Interior cabinet secretary Dr. Fred Matiang’i, said that it was the government’s priority to ensure the exercise is completed sooner rather than later.

At least 53,000 inmates and 48,000 prison staff will be targeted nationwide.

“We shall soon come back to the prison with the ministry of health to give the inmates another jab as one way of fighting this pandemic,” said Matiang’i.

The CS spoke Friday at the Naivasha Maximum Security Prison after delivering an assortment of Christmas comfort material to the 3,000 inmates.

Matiang’i revealed that all inmates nationwide would receive mattresses, blankets and even new pairs of uniforms.

The move comes in the backdrop of reforms within the country’s penal institutions with Matiang’i saying that it was critical the facilities become a hotspot of rehabilitation instead of a source of hardening inmates who some, after being released, find it difficult to be reintegrated back into the society.

The prisons service has come into the spotlight in recent weeks following the escape of three convicted terrorists from the Kamiti maximum prisons.

It is said that certain facilities have become fertile grounds for the radicalisation of terrorists..

“We want prisons to be managed the modern way and away from the colonial manner so that inmates can easily integrate into the society when released,” he said.

Prisons have meanwhile been encouraged to utilise its vast land to increase productivity.

The country’s correctional facilities are expected to resume inmate visitation more than one year since a ban was instituted at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The move, officials at the correctional facilities said was necessitated by a need to combat the spread of the deadly virus which would have proved difficult to contain at the inception of the pandemic due to challenges of sanitation and social distancing requirements as advised by the Ministry of Health