The Kenya Prisons Service (KPS) has opened discussions with the PPP Directorate to explore possibility of constructing 9000 housing units for prison warders through a public private partnerships arrangement.
In a presentation to a joint meeting between the two entities chaired by the Directorate’s Ag. Director General, Ms. Neala Wanjala, the KPS team highlighted the institution’s staff housing shortage describing the warders housing situation as ‘highly insufficient and in need of urgent infrastructure upgrade’.
“We’ve a deficit of 28,000 housing units across 136 KPS stations countrywide”, said, Arch. Koech Gabriel, who led the KPS team. The housing shortage, he noted, was undermining KPS’ ability to respond effectively to the required operational demands.
The proposed project which is dubbed, “The Kenya Prisons Service Staff Housing Project”, is expected to reduce overcrowding within residential quarters in prisons besides enhancing staff welfare.
According to KPS, construction work will be phased and selection of project locations shall be determined by land availability and commercial viability considerations.
In terms of risks to be borne by various parties to the project, it is projected that the private party will shoulder the financing, design and construction risks whereas the market, demand, political and legal change risks will be taken up by the Government. Off-taker, termination and inflation risks will be shared between the private party and the Government.
Ms. Wanjala assured KPS of the Directorate’s transaction advisory support throughout the project preparation phase. She further called on KPS to move with speed and appoint the Project Implementation Team (PIT), ensuring inclusion of representatives from key constituencies stipulated in the PPP Act such as the relevant KPS technical teams, the PPP Directorate, the State Department of Housing and the State Department of Public Works.
Of importance also, she added: “the KPS team should quickly work towards securing stakeholder alignment and acquire mandatory Government approvals to ensure success of the project”.
The project is proposed to be implemented under the Design-Build -Finance-Maintain-Operate-Transfer (DBFMOT) PPP model.
