Prisons Act

The Act may be cited as the Prisons Act.

Section 2 provides definitions of terms used in the Act.

The Kenya Prisons Service is composed of members appointed under the Act; the Cabinet Secretary may specify ranks by notice in the Gazette; prison officers have seniority as specified.

Section 4 has been deleted by L.N. 124/1964, Sch.

The Commissioner is vested with administration of the Service and control and supervision of prisoners, subject to directions of the Cabinet Secretary; the Commissioner may make standing orders and give administrative directions, subject to this Act, from time to time, for observance by all prison officers.

Deputy Commissioner may exercise the Commissioner's powers and duties; the Commissioner may delegate his powers to an Assistant Commissioner (subject to any contrary intention).

Prison officers may arrest persons reasonably suspected of deserting the Service without a warrant and must immediately take them before a magistrate.

Prison officers may search people, vehicles and items in or entering/leaving prisons when they suspect prohibited articles or government property; senior officers may refuse admission, order removal and use necessary force; officers may arrest and must hand arrested persons to police as soon as practicable; searches of women must be by another woman.

Any prison officer may use such force against a prisoner as is reasonably necessary to make him obey lawful orders which he refuses to obey or to maintain discipline, and in specified situations such as escape, breaking out, riotous behaviour, or where life or grave injury is threatened (including use of weapons).

An officer in charge may have prisoners photographed and take measurements, footprints, palm prints and fingerprints through prison officers or persons authorized by the Commissioner.

If a prison officer acted in obedience to a warrant produced and proved, the court must enter judgment for the officer; the court need not prove a warrant signature unless it doubts its genuineness, and even if the signature is not genuine the court shall still give judgment for the officer if the officer reasonably believed the signature to be genuine.

Every prison officer must exercise the powers and perform the duties conferred on officers of his class and must obey all lawful directions from his senior officers in relation to executing his office.

Every officer in charge must safely keep and account for public stores, money and prisoners' property, subject to this Act and rules, except for loss by unavoidable accident, theft, robbery or lawful use.

When in charge of prisoners for certain listed purposes, every prison officer has the same powers, protection and privileges as a police officer.

Prison officers must not leave service, withdraw from duty, be absent without leave or desert the Service unless expressly permitted by the Commissioner or an authorised prison officer; doing so is an offence punishable by a fine up to two thousand shillings or imprisonment up to six months, or both.

Every prison officer must be subject to the provisions of the Code of Regulations for Officers of the Government Service, so far as those provisions are not inconsistent with this Act or rules or standing orders made thereunder.

Prison officers must not assault, threaten or insult a senior officer in the Service under the stated conditions, or they commit an offence punishable by a fine up to two thousand shillings, imprisonment up to six months, or both.

Prison officers must not knowingly allow specified items (e.g. intoxicating liquor, tobacco, bhang, drugs, money, clothing, letters, documents or other articles) to be sold to, received from, or used by or on behalf of any prisoner.

Prison officers and any person with duties regarding prisoners are prohibited from selling or supplying articles to prisoners or prisons, receiving benefits from such sales or supplies, having interests in related contracts or engaging in certain pecuniary dealings or unauthorized communications; contravention is an offence punishable by a fine up to two thousand shillings or imprisonment up to six months or both.

Prison officers must not be members of trade unions or similar associations; contravention can lead to dismissal and loss of pension or gratuity.

Prison officers are prohibited from receiving fees, gratuities or engaging in business dealings with prisoners, discharged prisoners, prison visitors or their friends; they are prohibited from corresponding with friends or relatives of prisoners except with officer-in-charge authorization; they must not give certificates for prisoners except when authorized by the Commissioner; they must not convey communications or articles to or from prisoners except under Commissioner orders; contravention attracts a fine up to one thousand shillings or imprisonment up to three months or both.

Prison officers may be searched on the orders of a senior prison officer; the officer in charge may order the search of a prison officer's quarters at any time.

Prison officers conducting disciplinary inquiries can summon and examine witnesses, require documents and adjourn hearings; persons summoned must attend and answer lawfully put questions or face an offence punishable by a fine up to three hundred shillings or up to one month imprisonment, but witnesses need not answer questions that may incriminate them; officers may order Government to pay reasonable witness expenses subject to Criminal Procedure Code rules.

The Cabinet Secretary may prescribe which acts or omissions by prisoners are prison offences and classify them as minor or aggravated.

Section 51 authorises the officer in charge to impose specified punishments on prisoners, including confinement on a punishment diet, forfeiture of remission, reductions or forfeiture of privileges, earnings sanctions, and corporal punishment with a cane, subject to prescribed limits and periods.

Section 52 empowers the Commissioner to punish prisoners found guilty after due inquiry, allows an officer in charge to transfer aggravated cases to the Commissioner (with submission of specified materials), and lists the Commissioner’s possible decisions and prescribed punishments.

Prisoners must not be punished for a prison offence until they have been given an opportunity to hear the charge against them and make their defence.

Prisoners must not be subjected to punishment diet or corporal punishment unless a medical officer (or a person they appoint) certifies the prisoner is medically fit.

Rules on corporal punishment: maximum strokes for youths and adults; Commissioner must confirm sentences and may change them; medical officer must certify fitness and may order prevention or discontinuation; corporal punishment prohibited for female, condemned, and civil prisoners.

The officer in charge is permitted to order that a prisoner be segregated and not work or associate with other prisoners when the officer considers it desirable for good order and discipline, for such period as may be necessary.

The officer in charge must enter in a register a record of all punishments imposed on prisoners, showing each punished prisoner's name, the nature of the offence and the extent of the punishment; the register must be open to inspection by the visiting justices.

The Cabinet Secretary may declare buildings or places to be prisons, or declare prisons to cease to be prisons, by notice in the Gazette; 'prison' includes the prison grounds and attached buildings used by prisoners or staff.

If the Commissioner considers that a prison holds more prisoners than can be conveniently kept there and it is not convenient to transfer the excess, this circumstance is stated.

The section designates an "officer in charge" in every prison; that officer must supervise and control the prison, keep records as the Commissioner directs, and is responsible to the Commissioner for staff and prisoner conduct; an administrative officer appointed as officer in charge is subject to the Commissioner's orders and, unless limited in writing, has all powers of an officer in charge.

If prison staff are insufficient, the officer in charge may temporarily employ police officers with the Commissioner of Police's consent; those police officers will have the powers and duties of prison officers and, where police escort prisoners, they will have equivalent powers, responsibilities and penalties.

Where any female prisoner is held, a woman prison officer must be present to care for, superintend and discipline female prisoners.

Medical officers must be assigned to every prison, are responsible for prisoners' health and examinations, may undertake medical actions (including forcible feeding, inoculation, vaccination) even without consent when necessary, and actions taken under these powers are lawful.

Every officer in charge must keep and detain all persons duly committed to his custody according to the terms of the warrant or until discharged by due course of law.

A court may authorize a probation officer to remove a remand prisoner from prison custody, and a prison officer may hand over such a prisoner to that probation officer.

An officer in charge must bring any person in custody before the court at its next sitting.

A court may order the officer in charge to produce a prisoner in proper custody and the officer in charge must bring the named prisoner and provide for the prisoner's safe custody; a prisoner taken out under such an order is to be kept in custody as the officer directs and is deemed to be in lawful custody.

Every prisoner must be subject to prison discipline and to this Act and all rules, orders and directions made thereunder for the whole time of his imprisonment, whether he is or is not within the precincts of any prison.

Civil prisoners and unconvicted persons may be allowed to provide for themselves and receive items from private sources subject to examination and conditions the Commissioner sets; items belonging to them must not be given or sold to other prisoners; those who contravene may lose the privilege; prisoners who lack or have unsatisfactory food/clothing shall receive prescribed supplies.

Male and female prisoners must be kept apart by confining them in separate prisons or separate parts of the same prison, arranged to prevent, as far as practicable, any seeing, conversing or communication between them.

The Commissioner must confine prisoners detained for terrorism-related or serious offences separately to prevent them seeing, conversing or communicating except with other prisoners convicted under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (Cap. 59B).

A prisoner may be removed from any prison to any other prison from time to time at the Commissioner’s discretion.

A medical officer may order that a prisoner believed to be of unsound mind be removed to and detained in a mental hospital; if the person in charge of that hospital considers the prisoner no longer of unsound mind they must notify the officer in charge of the sending prison.

Officer in charge may order removal of a sick prisoner to hospital (with medical advice normally; in emergencies without it); hospital medical officer must notify and hospitals must take precautions to prevent escape; hospital detention counts as part of sentence.

The officer in charge may place a prisoner under hospital treatment into the custody of at least two fit persons (one of whom must stay with the prisoner day and night); those persons have authority to prevent escape and are answerable for safe custody until handover on discharge or until sentence expiry, whichever occurs first.

Allows the Commissioner to order removal of a prisoner diagnosed as a leper to a leper settlement (subject to subsection (2)); requires the settlement's person in charge to certify continued necessity and to notify when necessity ceases; settlement staff must take precautions to prevent escape but not act in ways prejudicial to the prisoner's health; defines "leper."

Prison officers and certain medical or settlement staff are not liable for a prisoner's escape from hospital or similar institutions unless specified conditions apply.

The Commissioner and officers have the power to direct prisoners' employment; a medical officer may order that a prisoner need not perform labour or only light labour when required by the prisoner's physical or mental condition.

Prisoners must keep their cells and personal items clean; appellant prisoners must also perform labour as directed by the Commissioner with the Cabinet Secretary's approval.

The officer in charge must ensure prisoners are duly discharged as soon as they are entitled to release.

Section 46 allows the Commissioner to grant a further remission and entitles each prisoner on admission to be credited with the full amount of remission they would be entitled to at sentence end.

Sections set rules for compulsory supervision orders: certain prisoners shall be subject to such orders; orders must be made on or before discharge; the Commissioner may revoke, vary, cancel, discharge and re‑make orders and must issue a certificate on revocation; a magistrate must issue a warrant on production of such a certificate and, after inquiry, commit the person to prison under the terms of subsection (4); cancellation frees the person from liability.

Section 48 has been deleted.

The Commissioner may release prisoners serving four years or more on parole within three months before their release date; the Commissioner or officer in charge may recall parolees at any time; failure to return or to comply with parole conditions is an offence with specified penalties including arrest and up to six months' imprisonment.

Prohibits conveying, supplying, hiding or placing for the use of any prisoner letters, documents, intoxicating liquor, tobacco, bhang or hemp, drugs, opiates, money, clothing, provisions or other articles.

Any person who, without lawful authority, brings into or removes from a prison a "prohibited article" commits an offence punishable by up to six months' imprisonment or a fine not exceeding two thousand shillings, or both.

Prison officers may seize articles unlawfully in prison, and the officer in charge may order confiscation and declare them forfeited.

It is an offence for any person to enter or remain inside a prison or place where prisoners work without lawful authority; refusal to leave can lead to arrest without warrant by a prison or police officer, and contravening subsection (1) or (2) carries up to three months' imprisonment or a fine up to five hundred shillings, or both.

Anyone found possessing articles supplied to prison officers or prison property, who cannot account for them or who unlawfully acquires or helps a prison officer dispose of them, commits an offence punishable by up to six months imprisonment, a fine not exceeding two thousand shillings, or both.

Section 63 makes it an offence for any person to procure, persuade, aid, abet, harbour, conceal, assist the rescue of, or otherwise incite mutiny, sedition or desertion of prison officers; penalties include up to one year imprisonment or a fine up to four thousand shillings for subsection (1) and up to two years or a fine up to six thousand shillings for subsection (2).

Any person who knowingly harbours or employs a person under sentence of imprisonment and illegally at large is guilty of an offence and liable to up to two years imprisonment or a fine up to six thousand shillings, or both.

Where no penalty is specifically provided, any person who commits an offence under the Act or its rules is liable to a fine not exceeding two thousand shillings, or imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months, or both.

The Cabinet Secretary may, by notice in the Gazette, declare buildings or places to be youth corrective training centres and may similarly declare they cease to be such centres; youth corrective training centres are deemed prisons subject to subsection (2).

Persons sentenced to corrective training in a youth corrective training centre are treated as prisoners for purposes of the Act, including remission of sentence.

Section 68 was repealed by ActNo. 10 of 1998, s. 15.

The Cabinet Secretary may appoint, by notice in the Gazette and from time to time, ministers or priests of any religious faith to serve as prison ministers.

The Commissioner must keep records (including personal data, biometrics, addresses, reasons and detention counts) of all prisoners in Kenya, ensure information security and confidentiality, and maintain an integrated biometric system to share information within the criminal justice system; the Cabinet Secretary may prescribe other particulars by Regulations.

The Commissioner must frame standing orders to guide prison ministers; those prison ministers may receive prescribed remuneration or reimbursement of expenses.

Section 72 appoints visiting justices: the Cabinet Secretary must appoint visiting justices by Gazette notice; certain local officials are ex officio visiting justices; visiting justices may inspect and visit prisons, carry out specified inspections and inquiries, appoint a chairman, act as a Board and report to the Cabinet Secretary; they must perform other duties as prescribed.

A Cabinet Secretary or a judge may at any time visit any prison, exercise powers of a visiting justice, and enter observations in a visitors’ book; the officer in charge must inform the Commissioner of observations entered.

The Cabinet Secretary has the power to make rules concerning the listed matters relating to prisons and prisoners, and may make different rules for different classes or particular prisons.