Death sentences drop after hitting new high in 2014
AG Githu Muigai suggested that the death penalty be scrapped in line with the UN Human Rights Council’s recommendations. PHOTO | FILE
What you need to know:
Kenya condemned 1,059 convicts to the hangman’s noose in 2015, down from 2,757 a year earlier.
The country has, however, not executed any convict in the past 29 years since 1987 and last year AG Githu Muigai suggested a plan to scrap the conviction.
Death sentences dropped last year for the first time in five years after hitting a record high in 2014.
Kenya condemned 1,059 convicts to the hangman’s noose in 2015, down from 2,757 a year earlier, official data shows.
The last time the country’s death sentences dropped was in 2010 when the number stood at 220.
Kenya has, however, not executed any convict in the past 29 years since 1987 and last year Attorney-General Githu Muigai suggested a plan to scrap the conviction as part of the UN Human Rights Council’s recommendations.
Human rights watch groups like Amnesty International (AI) have been pushing for a stop to killer sentences, saying it violates the right to life.
AI’s recent report gave a conservative number of 30 as death sentences issued by Kenyan courts last year.
Out of the 1,059 death row convicts last year, 61 were female, Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) data shows.
But offenders below 18 years, pregnant women and the mentally ill are spared the penalty. In January Chief Justice Willy Mutunga unveiled guidelines encouraging judges to issue death sentences to capital offenders.
“Since the death penalty has not been abolished, judges must impose the sentence with respect to capital offences,” the guidelines say in part.
In 2009, former President Mwai Kibaki commuted the sentences of all 4,000 prisoners on death row to life imprisonment.
The Kenya Penal Code names murder, violent robbery, treason and military offences such as spying, mutiny and aiding the country’s enemy as crimes that attract the death penalty.
The Supreme Court is expected to make a ruling this year on the legality of the penalty after several death row convicts last year petitioned against their sentencing.
In 2014 a number of MPs rooted for the inclusion of terrorism, homosexuality, corruption and economic crimes on the list of crimes punishable by death.
But the bid was struck down during the amendment of the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Act two years ago.
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