Death sentences for 2,700 reduced to life in jail

What you need to know:

Capital punishment was formally introduced into the Kenyan legal system by the British during the colonial era.
The last hanging in Kenya took place in 1987, when August 1982 attempted coup plotters Hezekiah Ochuka and Pancras Oteyo Okumu were executed.

President Uhuru Kenyatta on Monday reduced the death sentences of 2,747 convicts to life imprisonment as debate on whether the penalty should be abolished continues.

Mr Kenyatta also pardoned 102 long-serving prisoners who will now be set free.

The sentence reduction comes seven years after President Mwai Kibaki in 2009 lifted the death penalty for 4,000 inmates to serve life imprisonment.

“Signed commutation of all death sentences to life imprisonment at State House. 2,747 death row convicts will now serve life imprisonment,” Mr Kenyatta said in a social media statement.

“Also signed a pardon warrant and released 102 long-term serving convicts after a thorough vetting by the Power of Mercy Advisory Committee.” The Mercy Committee in June this year held several public sittings across the country as it sought the views of Kenyans on whether the death penalty should be abolished.

READ: Kenyans facing death sentences double in a year

The committee is expected to present a report to the Cabinet which will then take a decision on the issue.

Kenyan law prescribes the death penalty for murder, armed robbery and treason.

Capital punishment was formally introduced into the Kenyan legal system by the British during the colonial era. The last hanging in Kenya took place in 1987, when August 1982 attempted coup plotters Hezekiah Ochuka and Pancras Oteyo Okumu were executed.

In 2009, Mr Kibaki said the law does not permit prisoners on death row to be gainfully or productively used by the prison authorities, thus leading to idleness and subsequent negative impact on prison discipline.

Mr Kenyatta last Thursday released more than 7,000 petty offenders.