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Kenya, Tanzania to swap prisoners in their jails


Kenya and Tanzania are planning to swap prisoners, according to Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Monica Juma.

Appearing before the National Assembly Committee on Defense and Foreign Relations on Tuesday, the CS noted that Tanzania and China have a large number of Kenyans in their jails.

However, Monica told the committee that the Kenya and Tanzanian governments are working on a bilateral agreement that will see a swap of prisoners between the two countries.

“The draft agreement was proposed by the government of Kenya and conveyed to its Tanzanian counterpart for consideration. Implementation of the agreement will ensure that Kenyans serving jail sentence in Tanzania would be brought to Kenya to serve half of their sentence,” the CS said.

According to the CS, Tanzania has the largest number of Kenyans jailed in their prisons with the number standing at 79.

In total, she said, atleast 273 Kenyans are in foreign jails in about 21 countries.

On March 8, Monica had stated that about 1,300 Kenyans were serving in jail terms in foreign countries while Kenyan jails was holding about 2,000 foreign prisoners.