Judiciary wants convicts on death row hanged

The Judiciary now wants the Executive to hire a hang-man and allow him to deal with thousands of convicted Kenyans awaiting death sentence.

High Court Judge Fred Ochieng says the Judiciary wants the death penalty imposed upon offenders as outlined in the new policy guidelines launched on Monday by Chief Justice Dr. Willy Mutunga.

The new policy guidelines were prepared by a team of Judges at the Judicial Training Institute led by Justice Msagha Mbogholi.

Former President Mwai Kibaki commuted the death sentences to life imprisonment in 2009 as human rights activists pushed Kenya towards eliminating the death penalty.

His action reduced by a fifth the 20,000 prisoners facing execution around the world.

Kibaki signaled intentions to abolish the death penalty altogether but first called for a study to determine whether Kenya’s mandatory death sentence for murder, armed robbery or treason actually deters crime.

His move reflected a trend beyond Europe and elsewhere to abolish capital punishment.

Since 2008, Argentina, Burundi and Uzbekistan have abolished the death penalty.

Kenya is one of the Sub-Saharan countries that have made steps toward reducing executions or doing away with them. The others include; Uganda, Tanzania, Mali and Nigeria.

Only 25 countries actually carried out executions in 2008. In sub-Saharan Africa, only two countries — Botswana and Sudan — carried out executions 2008.

China has the most executions, at least 5,000 in 2008, according to a July report by the anti-death-penalty group Hands-Off-Cain.

China’s highest court, which reviews all executions, recently called for the death penalty to be used less often. In the USA, about 35 people are executed per year.

By Kenyan law, armed robbery carries a mandatory death sentence — for bank robbers with sub-machine guns or someone using a stick to snatch a chicken.

Even though the death penalty has not been carried out since 1983, the population on death row kept expanding.

Even, as the former President signaled an intention to push for abolition of the death the fact the new constitution retains provisions for the death penalty [The Penal Code] is an impediment.

Kenya’s Court of Appeal sitting in Nairobi on July 30th, 2010 declared unconstitutional the application of a mandatory death sentence on all prisoners convicted of murder.

In their unanimous judgment, the Court of Appeal ruled that the automatic nature of the death penalty in Kenya for murder violates the right to life and amounts to inhuman punishment, as it does not provide the individuals concerned with an opportunity to mitigate their death sentences.

As a result, hundreds of prisoners currently on death row in Kenya, including the Appellant, Godfrey Mutiso, were given a reprieve.

The Court of Appeal said that the same reasoning given in the judgment would apply to other offences having a mandatory death sentence, such as treason and robbery with violence (Section 296/2 of the Penal Code).