This archive report was first published on 13 May 2020.
As of May 13, 2020, Kenya's correctional centres are on high alert after the first two cases of coronavirus were reported at Industrial Area Prison in Nairobi.
The government has released over 7,000 inmates since the mass releases began last month, with 213 prisoners and staff tested for the virus.
Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang'i assured a Senate committee that the remaining 47,000 inmates are healthy and receiving their food, but critics question the government's commitment to fighting Covid-19 in these institutions.
The country's prison population stands at 219,295, with only 77,347 being convicted prisoners. Remandees form the majority of the prison population, at 64 per cent.
Kenya's official prison system capacity is 26,837, but it has an occupancy of 190 per cent, making social distancing and hygiene nearly impossible.
