Nairobi News

Forty two inmates at the Industrial Area Prison have been quarantined after coming into contact with two other remandees who tested positive for Covid-19 last week.

Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i on Monday told the Senate Ad hoc Committee on Covid-19.

ISOLATION CENTRES

Dr Matiang’i further said the government is working to upscale the capacity of the isolation centres in prison from the current 500 beds to 1,000 beds.

“Only two have tested positive and we immediately moved them to an isolation facility, and then we removed everyone else who was with them and isolated them as we wait for the second testing,” Matiang’i said.

The CS informed the committee that the prison population has gone down from 54,000 after the government released some 7,000 inmates and petty offenders as a measure to curb the spread of coronavirus by decongesting the country’s prisons and correctional facilities.

He assured the Senators that the more than 47,000 inmates are in good health.

INMATE POPULATION

“I can confirm to you that the entirety of the inmate population in the country are all fine and healthy and are getting their food and the medical department is very active,” he said.

On Saturday, Health CAS Rashid Aman said mass testing in prisons was set to be done after the cases were confirmed.

“Part of our testing is to get into these facilities, work with the prison department in order to be able to determine whether there is transmission of the pandemic within these facilities and then put in all those necessary measures that we require to protect the inmates,” Aman said.

The Interior CS on Monday said 219 prison staffers have so far been tested, 144 in Nairobi area, 42 in Nyanza, 27 in Rift Valley, 12 in Coast region and 8 in Western region.

The mass testing is yet to be conducted in North Eastern and Eastern regions.