Nearly 3 000 Kenyan deathrow inmates escape hangman

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Published Oct 24, 2016

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Nairobi - A total of 2 747 deathrow convicts in Kenya on Monday escaped the hangman’s noose after President Uhuru Kenyatta commuted their death sentences into life jail terms.

In Kenya a life jail term means serving life imprisonment unless otherwise pardoned by a Presidential decree.

In a statement from State House Nairobi, the President effectively saved the hanging of 2 655 male convicts and 92 female convicts who will be now be removed from the death row to serve life sentences.

In 2009, former President Mwai Kibaki commuted the sentences of all those on death row to life imprisonment. The decision affected over 4 000 prisoners and at the time was said to be one of the largest commutation of death sentences anywhere in the world.

According to the Kenya Prisons Act, executions are to be carried out by hanging. The last hanging in Kenya took place in 1987 after the plotters of the August 1982 coup attempt were sentenced to death. Although there hasn’t been a hanging since then, scores of convicts are sentenced to death each year.

Invoking the Power of Mercy provided for under Article 133 of the Constitution, Kenyatta on Monday also signed a pardon warrant and released 102 long-term serving convicts.

The reprieve for the 102 convicts came after a thorough vetting by the Power of Mercy Advisory Committee.

The Power of Mercy is a prerogative power conferred on the President by the Constitution and entails granting pardon to reformed and rehabilitated convicted criminal offenders deserving early release from prison.

The move by the President comes soon after the launch of the second and final leg of the Kenya national public debate on capital punishment.

The debate is to solicit views from Kenyans on the administration of capital punishment and management of capital offences or what is popularly known as the death penalty.

The public discussion being spearheaded by the Power of Mercy Advisory Committee (POMAC) and National Crime Research Centre (NCRC) will be conducted in 28 Counties countrywide, within the next two months.

According to the Kenyan law, five types of offences attract capital punishment (death sentence). These are: murder, treason, and robbery with violence, attempted robbery with violence and oathing with intent to commit a felony.

Present at the signing of the documents were Attorney General Githu Muigai, Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaissery, Power of Mercy Advisory Committee Secretary Michael Kagika Prisons Commissioner General Isaiah Osugo, and Chief of Staff and Head of Public Service Joseph Kinyua.

African News Agency

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