Lilian Mutende, the chairperson of the National Community Service Orders Committee (NCSOC) and a High Court judge, is advocating for the release of petty offenders from Kenyan prisons to help alleviate overcrowding. Mutende believes that addressing prison congestion could be achieved through judicial reforms that introduce alternative punishment methods for petty crimes.
In an interview on Citizen TV’s Daybreak program on Wednesday, Lady Justice Mutende proposed measures such as non-custodial sentences and community service as alternatives to imprisonment for minor offenses.
“Overcrowding is a great concern; our correctional facilities were built a long time ago, some even during the colonial times. They have been renovated and additional ones built, but they are not enough because of the population increase,” she said.
In the NCSOC chair’s view, only “hardcore criminals” should be sent to prison.
“The only way to deal with this is by adopting a restorative form of justice; the community service orders deal with minor offenders. Petty offenders should not be in prison, we should only have hardcore prisoners,” Mutende said.
“Non-serious ones should be ordered to do community service, rehabilitated and made to reform by reconciling with the victims instead of being in prison.”
Last month, newly-appointed Prisons Commissioner General Patrick Aranduh stated that addressing overcrowding would be one of his top priorities. He reported that Kenyan prisons are currently housing about 62,000 inmates, far exceeding their intended capacity of 30,000.
President William Ruto has been advocating for alternative dispute resolution methods to reduce imprisonment for minor offenses due to the problem of overcrowding. In April of the previous year, the President highlighted that over 10,000 prisoners were serving sentences of less than three years, and 41 percent of the prison population was awaiting trial for bailable offenses.
