Digital Literacy Programme for Kenya's Correctional Institutions

Announced on 26 January 2026 and formally launched at an event in Syokimau in April 2026, the programme is led by Kenya's State Department for Correctional Services under Principal Secretary Dr Salome Beacco, in partnership with the NGO Close the Gap (which donated refurbished hardware) and Tech Kids Africa (which designed the curriculum).

250 desktop computers were distributed across 14 institutions, including several youth facilities (Shikusa Borstal, Kamae Girls Borstal, Kamiti Youth Corrective Centre), probation hostels (Shanzu, Nairobi Boys', Kimumu Junior and Senior, Nakuru Girls') and women's prisons (Kisumu, Meru, Thika, Murang'a, Nyeri) — meaning the programme is concentrated on juvenile and women offenders rather than the general adult male prison population.

The three-month curriculum covers computer maintenance, graphic design, CCTV installation and computer networking, explicitly framed around market-relevant, employable ICT skills and circular-economy repair techniques rather than only general digital literacy.

The programme is very recent — it launched only months before this review — and no completion, employment or recidivism data have yet been published; specific facility-level rollout dates, funding commitments beyond the initial hardware donation, and how skills will be tracked after release remain undisclosed in public reporting, so its evidence base should currently be treated as a pilot announcement rather than a proven model.

Read the full analysis: https://correctional.go.ke/14-correctional-institutions-set-benefit-digital-literacy-programme