Kenya to train southern Sudan prison officers

Sept 15, 2006 (NAIROBI) — Kenya’s authorities said on Friday that the east African nation would train southern Sudan prison officers to provide services to the vast region.

Kenya’s Commissioner for Prisons Gilbert Omondi expressed the east African nation’s readiness to assist the region with manpower to train prison staff and cadet officers who are expected to undergo a three-month training course in Kenya.

“Kenya is willing to assist our brothers from southern Sudan. We are capable and what remains is to work out modalities before we start offering our assistance,” Omondi said.

A delegation of prison officers from southern Sudan which has been on a week-long visit to Kenya said they were impressed by Kenya’s prison facilities, adding that Kenya has also been instrumental in southern Sudan’s reconstruction process by training its human resources and in the provision of goods and services to the region.

Southern Sudan, which currently has 65 prisons handling between 300 to 1,500 inmates, is trying to rehabilitate prison systems, which were ruined by more than two decades of civil war.

Kenya, which hosted peace talks that led to signing of Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005, is particularly keen to beat South African rivals in the race for opportunities in southern Sudan and also aims to build a railway and oil pipeline to connect its neighbor to its Indian Ocean port city of Mombasa.

The country’s largest bank, Kenya Commercial Bank, has opened two branches in Rumbek and Juba in Southern Sudan, making it a double in less than a year as it moves to meet the immense demand for banking services in the vast region.

(Xinhua)