KIGALI - On Wednesday, a Cabinet meeting adopted the Internal Security minister’s decision for prisoners in the country to feed on outsourced ready-cooked food.

According to the ministry, the decision was reached as a result of concerns to do with the many expenses accrued in obtaining fire wood, water and other requirements to prepare food for the prisoners.

"We have already started with the Ngoma prison and extending to Nyamagabe prison and the supplier is a qualified doctor holding a PhD in food science,” the minister, Sheikh Musa Fazil Harerimana told The Sunday Times on phone.

According to Harerimana, the supply will be carried out by Kubumwe Enterprises owned by Dr. Celestin Kubumwe, a lecturer at the National University of Rwanda (UNR) in the Faculty of Food Science.

Initially the ministry was paying Rwf 203 for 550 grams of food per prisoner daily, as compared to Kubumwe Enterprises, which will cost only Rwf 200.

"We shall be relieved from the burden of water use and the price was not all the time stable. Sometimes we would end up paying Rwf 250 daily on every prisoner which was costly,” the mionister stressed.

Speaking to The Sunday Times, Dr Celestin Kubumwe said that his enterprise will begin by supplying three prisons including Nyagatare.

"We are ready and we have already started the supply. We use steam to cook food and we shall supply all prisons by June this year,” Kubumwe said.

However, the acting Commissioner of Prison Services, Steven Balinda, suggested that the government empowers the prisons with the machinery to support the enterprise and reduce the budget.

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