Ouko audit blames State for prisons staff housing crisis

The Kenya Prisons Service (KPS) has failed to provide more than 20,000 wardens with decent housing, leaving a majority of them accommodated in temporary structures, a government audit has shown.

The KPS has a paltry 3,894 permanent one-bedroom houses against a staff population of 23,831.

“The KPS has been recruiting officers into the service over the years, but has failed to provide houses at the same pace,” said Auditor-General Edward Ouko in a performance audit report on the provision of housing to prison officers.

He said the prison staff housing is characterised by an acute shortage with the majority of officers indecently housed in semi-permanent and temporary structures. “Besides, most of the houses are dilapidated due to a lack of maintenance,” Mr Ouko said in the report Leader of Majority Aden Duale tabled in Parliament.

Mr Ouko said the government had failed to make prison staff housing a priority. He said the KPS and the Interior ministry have through different programmes provided housing to prison staff but the efforts have done little to address the crisis.

“Addressing prison staff housing requires a long-term policy.

On the contrary, provision of prison staff housing has witnessed a continued shift in policy, which has affected project delivery in terms of stalling buildings, change in the type of units being constructed and progress in the implementation of the projects,” Mr Ouko said.

He said while the former Vice President Moody Awori programme would have addressed the problem but the rapid results initiative, which focuses more on numbers than quality, replaced it.