Kenya Prisons is on the verge of total collapse for lack of supplies owing to principal secretary State Department for Correctional Services in the ministry of Interior Zainab Hussein’s style of management, Weekly Citizen can authoritative reveal. The PS who remains one of the most publicity shy senior government officials has run roughshod at the department, that not even her indefatigable minister Fred Matiang’i is able to contain her excesses. The PS has poor working relations not only with Matiang’i but also with prisons boss Wycliffe Ogallo and now officials at Magereza House say she looks down on them and does not take any advice.
Since she was appointed to the position in 2018, Hussein, whose original name is Wanjiku from Thika, Kiambu county, has not only refused to pay Sh6 billion historical pending bills as directed by the cabinet but also accumulated her own pending bills. The most astonishing part is that she has centralised procurement to her office just like Kirinyaga governor Anne Waiguru, then at Devolution ministry, did with National Youth Services. Now, Hussein has refused to pay procurement for goods she ordered through her office. The situation is so dire in Prisons that since 2017/2018 FY, when she was appointed, there have been no blankets and other beddings in Prisons across the country.
Prisoners are dependent on their relatives to bring beddings and sanitary equipment and the situation was made worse by Covid-19 that saw government ban visits to prisons in March 2020. The ban remains in force. As if that is not enough, food suppliers have now taken a back seat and prison commanders who have Authority to Incur Expenditure (AIE) mandate holders are now telling relatives of prisoners to bring their own food, beddings, sanitary towels among others. The PS has done away with provisions of procurement law and she is a one-person show much to the detriment of the department.
“She listens to no one and even when you have a point, she makes sure she demeans you in front of other civil servants,” said one Magereza House worker. Despite numerous complaints to Head of Public Service, nothing has been done to the PS. “Ogallo himself is not without blemish because in his suggestions for promotion of prison warders, he only suggests members of his Luo community, something the PS despises because she prefers to promote her Kikuyu kinsmen who also dominate her office in procurement, finance and audit departments,” said another source adding that it is high time Head of Public Service acted to save the prisons department ignominy and ensure the president’s agenda is achieved.
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