FreedomWithin Kenya has broken ground for a KSh9 million Mother and Child Accommodation Unit at Embu Women’s Prison in a move aimed at improving the living conditions and wellbeing of children staying in prison alongside their incarcerated mothers.
The purpose-built facility is expected to provide a safer, healthier and more nurturing environment for infants and young children, addressing the unique needs of children growing up within correctional facilities.
Speaking during the groundbreaking ceremony, FreedomWithin Kenya Partnership Lead Dr Mary Waceke Thongoh-Muia called for greater collaboration between government, businesses, foundations, professional organisations, communities and individual well-wishers to improve the welfare of children living with incarcerated mothers.
“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,” she said.
The initiative has received support from the State Department for Correctional Services, which said it is working to improve daycare and child-friendly facilities across the country’s women’s prisons.
Principal Secretary, State Department for Correctional Services, Dr Salome Beacco, welcomed the project, saying the government was seeking to shift the correctional system from a predominantly punitive approach towards rehabilitation.
She said partnerships with organisations such as FreedomWithin Kenya were helping advance reforms aimed at ensuring that people under state care are treated with humanity, compassion and dignity.
“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.
She added that the Embu facility would provide children with improved safety, hygiene and dignity while giving incarcerated mothers a more conducive environment in which to undertake rehabilitation and vocational training.
The groundbreaking ceremony also marked the commissioning of a KSh4 million Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) facility designed to create a healthier and more child-friendly environment for mothers and young children at the prison.
The WASH facility includes child-friendly toilets and showers, handwashing stations, a laundry area, baby-changing facilities, disability-inclusive toilets, a water tower, two 5,000-litre water tanks and a water reticulation system.
The facility was funded through seed support from the Napier Fellowship USA, awarded to FreedomWithin Kenya co-founder Shakinar Mutulili.
Triad Architects provided architectural and project management support on a pro-bono basis, while FreedomWithin Kenya provided administrative and coordination support.
The planned Mother and Child Accommodation Unit has also received contributions from family, friends and the Triad Foundation. Triad Architects has committed additional pro-bono architectural and technical support, while the Kenya Prisons Service is providing institutional leadership, access to the project site and technical guidance.
The Embu project builds on an initiative that began in 2018, when Shakinar Mutulili and her sister, Naikena, who were teenagers at the time, began organising food and diaper drives to support children living alongside incarcerated mothers.
The organisation says the latest project represents a further step in efforts to ensure that children who live in correctional facilities with their mothers have access to basic services and an environment that supports their health, development and dignity.
The project also highlights the role of partnerships between government and non-state actors in addressing the needs of vulnerable children within Kenya’s correctional system.
