A Sh9 million accommodation facility is set to be constructed at Embu Women’s Prison to improve the living conditions of children staying alongside their incarcerated mothers.
The modern Mother and Child Care Unit is expected to provide a safer and more child-friendly environment for young children while allowing their mothers to access rehabilitation and vocational training programmes.
State Department for Correctional Services Principal Secretary Dr Salome Beacco welcomed the project, saying the government was committed to upgrading daycare and child-friendly facilities across the country’s 46 women’s prisons.
Beacco said the reforms were aimed at transforming Kenya’s correctional system from a largely punitive approach to a rehabilitative model that recognises the dignity and rights of people in custody.
“The State Department for Correctional Services is leveraging partnerships to advance the envisaged reforms. The Government is also committed to ensuring that every person under its care is treated with humanity, compassion and respect, in accordance with the Kenyan Constitution and international human rights standards,” Beacco said.
The facility is being developed by FreedomWithin Kenya, a charity organisation focused on improving the wellbeing of young girls, expectant mothers and children of incarcerated parents.
Beacco said the quality of correctional services also depended on the professionalism and discipline of prison officers entrusted with the care and rehabilitation of inmates.
“We appreciate Freedom Within Kenya and its partners for supporting the establishment of the Embu Mother and Child Care Unit. Your support is restoring hope, health, safety, hygiene and dignity to children while providing their mothers with a more conducive environment to undertake rehabilitation and vocational training,” she said.
Partnership Lead at FreedomWithin Kenya Dr Mary Waceke Thongoh-Muia called for greater cooperation between government, corporates, foundations, professional organisations, communities and individual well-wishers to address the needs of children living in prisons with their mothers.
She said prisons were not originally designed to accommodate infants and young children, making it necessary to provide facilities that cater for their unique needs.
“A prison environment was never designed with an infant or young child in mind. Our responsibility is therefore to ensure that where children must live alongside their mothers, their basic needs for safety, hygiene, nutrition, play, learning and nurturing are not overlooked,” Thongoh-Muia said.
The groundbreaking ceremony also marked the commissioning of a newly constructed Sh4 million Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) facility at the prison.
The facility is designed to provide mothers and children with safer and healthier surroundings and includes child-friendly toilets and showers, handwashing facilities, a laundry area and baby-changing amenities.
It also has disability-inclusive toilets, a water tower, two 5,000-litre water tanks and a water reticulation system.
The WASH facility was funded through seed financing from the Napier Fellowship USA, awarded to Shakinar Mutulili, a co-founder of FreedomWithin Kenya.
The Embu project is the latest initiative by the organisation, which began in 2018 when Mutulili and her founding sister, Naikena Mutulili, were teenagers.
The two began mobilising their peers through food and diaper drives to support children living alongside their incarcerated mothers, eventually expanding their efforts into broader initiatives aimed at improving the welfare and dignity of children affected by parental incarceration.
