Values-Based Innovations Transform a Nation’s Prison System
In September 2017, Kenya’s Ministry of Corrections selected Principle Based Leadership (PBL) as their partner to provide rehabilitation, training, and development services for 55,000 inmates and 18,000 employees across 109 men’s prisons. This decision followed a rigorous vetting process of 19 applicant organizations.
“The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.”
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Five Critical Challenges in Kenya’s Prisons
Breaking Barriers: The Sanctuary Church Initiative
Historically, church ministers and prison chaplains harbored mutual disdain. In 2020, leaders from both groups—graduates of PBL’s Smallholder Farmer Men’s Leadership Program (SFMLP)—joined in prayer to envision a new collaboration. The result: Sanctuary Churches.
Prison officials now share inmate files with these churches 60 days prior to release, enabling a “soft landing” for ex-convicts. Families are reunited, marriages healed, and men integrated into PBL’s Farms for Life Program.
“Almost all inmates have been freed from the bane of their father-wound—and thus freed from repeating the fatherless cycle with their children,” says Rev. Wycliffe Mudavadi, PBL Board Member.
Ex-con Samuel (center), for example, remarried his wife, reunited with his children, and now thrives with a new home and farm.
Unmet Basic Needs
Kenya’s prisons lack budgets for essentials:
- Toilet paper
- Bar soap
- Towels
- Toothbrushes
- Toothpaste
- Fresh fruit
US donors recently provided Kakamega Prison with fruit, toilet paper, and soap—small gestures with profound impact.
Break the Cycle. Restore Hope. Transform Lives.
Every day, thousands of men in Kenya’s prisons face unimaginable suffering—not just from overcrowded cells or systemic injustice, but from the crushing weight of hopelessness. You can change this.
Your support will:
- Provide basic dignity: Supply toilet paper, soap, toothpaste, and fresh fruit to inmates who lack even the most essential hygiene items.
- Reunite families: Fund PBL’s Sanctuary Church initiative, restoring broken relationships and giving ex-convicts a safe, supportive community to rebuild their lives.
- End the revolving door: Support the Farms for Life Program, empowering men with skills to thrive as farmers, fathers, and leaders—breaking cycles of poverty and recidivism.
- Fight injustice: Help clear remand backlogs by funding legal aid and technology upgrades for Kenya’s overburdened courts.
"For less than the cost of a meal, you can give a man back his dignity, his family, and his future."
