South Rift lawyers call for abolition of death penalty
Two South Rift lawyers have urged the government to do away with the death penalty. FILE PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- The lawyer says a death sentence has become known as an "academic sentence" in legal circles because though Kenya allows capital punishment, the last execution was in 1986.
Senior lawyers in the South Rift have called for amendments to the penal code to abolish capital punishment.
Giving their views on the matter a day after President Uhuru Kenyatta commuted the death sentences of all 2,747 convicts on death row to life imprisonment, Law Society of Kenya South Rift Branch chairman Erastus Orina and former Rift Valley LSK chairman Kipkoech Ngetich said it was time for the death penalty to be scrapped.
Mr Orina noted that though the President's decision was an act of clemency, the courts would continue to sentence more people convicted of serious crimes to hang because they have no other option under the law.
Under the current laws, convictions on robbery with violence, treason and murder attract the death sentence.
“It would be good if the same is embedded on legal premise. Some people may view the President’s move to commute the sentences to life imprisonment as having gone in conflict with existing laws.
"I believe our penal code must be amended to abolish the death sentence,” said Mr Orina.
The long-serving lawyer noted that around the world, many countries have done away with the death penalty in favour of long prison terms, including life imprisonment.
“Most nations which have taken the move are of the view that killing a person does not change others and that no government has the right to take away anyone’s life. For them, life sentences serve better in deterring crime than the death penalty,” he said.
Mr Ngetich, for his part, noted that a death sentence has become known as an "academic sentence" in legal circles because, though Kenya allows capital punishment, the last execution happened in 1986.
“The death sentence is an academic sentence. It is enshrined in our law and we retain it for the fear of the unknown and nothing else. It should not last a day more in our statute books,” said Mr Ngetich.
The last people to face the hangman’s noose were Hezekiah Ochuka and Pancras Okumu, who were executed in 1986 for treason after being convicted of involvement in the 1982 attempted coup.
The debate over whether the capital sentence is still necessary has come up before, with human rights organizations calling for its abolition.
