Langata Women Maximum Security Prison is the largest women’s prison in Kenya located in Nairobi’s Lang’ata suburb. It was formed in the British colonial era of the 1950s. The following maximum prisons were gazetted on 14th March 2017 by then-Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaissery to accommodate more hardcore criminals in the country as an addition to the above 6 major maximum prisons.
The British Council in collaboration with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime have handed over a newly constructed holding block for terror convicts to authorities at Langata Women’s Prison.
The separation block which has the capacity to hold 12 people will separate criminals considered to be high risk from the general population.
The reason for the separation is to try and put a stop at radicalisation at the facility.
Langata Women’s Prison has become the first penal institution in Kenya to host a separate holding block for female terror convicts.
This is after the facility, which has the capacity to hold 12 people, was officially handed to prison authorities by the British Council and a United Nations agency on Wednesday.
The holding block is meant to separate criminals convicted of extremism-related charges, who are considered high risk, from the rest of the general population in efforts aimed at curbing radicalisation at the facility.
It also comes with two guardrooms, and will accommodate the convicts as well as their children.
