The Government has laid the Community Service Bill, 2026, before Parliament as part of efforts to reduce congestion in the country’s prisons.

The proposed legislation seeks to introduce a structured framework for non-custodial sentencing, ensuring that individuals who commit minor offences are assigned community service instead of being incarcerated.

Presenting the object of the bill after its first reading on Wednesday, March 4, the Minister for the Interior, Mohammed Mubarak Muntaka, explained that the initiative is aimed at easing pressure on correctional facilities while promoting more restorative forms of justice.

According to him, imprisoning persons for petty offences places an additional burden on the state, particularly in terms of feeding and maintaining inmates.

“The reason for this bill is to help us decongest our prisons and to ensure that people with minor offences are given non-custodial sentencing instead of just caging them without the ability to feed and maintain them,” he explained.

“It is basically to help us set up a framework to ensure that we decongest our prisons and we do not just sentence people for stealing bananas and plantains, but rather get them to do community service that will enhance community unity and prevent the repetition of minor offences just being in prison,” he added.