Minister of Home Stephen Kampyongo says new inmates will have to be carefully screened before being admitted into prison facilities to prevent the spread of cholera.

And government has prohibited the external movement and transfer of inmates from one correctional facility to another until the cholera outbreak is contained.

During a press briefing at his office yesterday Kampyongo explained that his ministry was undertaking a number of measures to ensure that the spread of cholera in correctional and detention facilities was prevented.

“The correctional facilities have not been affected by cholera so far, but to prevent cholera from spreading to the facilities, we have taken a number of measures in line with the advice from the Ministry of Health. The measures to be implemented to prevent cholera in the correctional facilities include; sensitisation of officers and inmates on the prevention of cholera; external movement of inmates is prohibited until further notice. No food from outside the correctional facilities whether from visitors or officers quotas shall be allowed inside the correctional facilities. High levels of hygiene should be observed in all correctional facilities, chlorine, disinfectants and other cleaning materials should be provided to the inmates,” Kampyongo said.

“Transfer of of inmates from one facility to another has been prohibited until further notice. Screening of all new admissions with particular attention to signs and symptoms of cholera has been intensified; hand washing facilities should be provided at the gate and visitors bay and make sure that anti-septics are equally provided. And all the officers shall maintain high levels of hygiene and cleanliness in the camps and residential areas. The general public is therefore advised to take note of the prescribed measures to prevent the spread of cholera in the correctional and detention facilities.”

Meanwhile, Kampyongo commended street vendors for cooperating with the state in the cleaning exercise of the streets in an effort to fight cholera.

“With regards to the street vendors, I must start by commending them for cooperating with the State because what we don’t want to see is burying them in huge numbers because we all know the dangers of cholera and of course we know that there income has been affected for now but His Excellency the President, the Minister of Health and also the Ministry of Local Government have assured them that once the situation normalises, they will get back to the normal way of doing business and then they are also looking for alternative places which are being prepared for them to get back to work,” said Kampyongo.

“So we applaud their response because that’s how it should be for citizens where a country has a situation like the one we have now. What is there is to protect their lives and prevent what we can prevent.”