Faraja Foundation has donated 2,168 beds to women prisons across the country in a project dubbed Fr. Peter Meienberg, Mfariji wa Wafungwa Kenya Women Prisons Beds Project. The project was initiated in May 2021 to have women offenders lead decent lives at correctional facilities. In a function presided over by the Chief Administrative Secretary of the Ministry of Interior and Coordination of National Government, Winnie Guchu and the Commissioner General of the Kenya Prisons Service, Wycliffe Ogallo, EBS.
Faraja Foundation’s Chairman CPA David Kimutai Bett took the opportunity to thank the Founder of Faraja Foundation, Fr. Peter Meienberg and his family for the resources channeled through his Foundation to bring to life this legacy project. The Chief Executive Officer, Jane Kuria, HSC who spoke at the Bomet GK Prison during the official closure of the project, said the main objective was to ensure all correctional facilities were equipped with beds to reduce the risk of ailments such as pneumonia.
“Cases where convicts contract diseases just because they lack the basic bedding facilities are now a thing of the past,” she stated.
Chairman CPA David Kimutai Bett said they will soon launch a programme aimed at reintegrating ex-convicts back into the society. He said prisoners, especially women and young girls, were vulnerable and required special support. With this particular intervention, they are now assured of good health conditions for all women in Prison together with the children below 4 years who accompany them to prison.
“We shall continue providing more support to the wrongdoers who have been released and including the prisons facilities because we know when they are not received well in the society they might come,” Bett remarked.
Rift Valley Prisons Regional Commandant Aggrey Onyango said the Kenya Prisons Service will continue welcoming all donors and partners willing to offer support to its correctional facilities. While commending the various Non-Governmental Organizations for the goodwill support it has continued to offer, SAGP Aggrey Onyango pointed out that through such interventions, the service has managed to surmount some of the challenges they have been encountering. He noted that the support being offered was not a private duty but that which should involve all stakeholders hence the need for the close collaboration.
“This is not an individual business but the society’s at large. That is why we encourage all stakeholders and partners to come on board and help us in molding these detainees,” said Onyango.
He disclosed that the service was in the process of forming a committee to guide and determine the kind of support required by particular prisons.