Death sentence does not help reduce crime, do away with it

Susan Mutongori who had been convicted to a death sentence for Killing her 17-month-old baby reacts after Nakuru High Court Judge Justice Joel Ngugi released her on August 7, 2019. [File, Standard]

A new study offers new possibilities for Kenya's 656 death row prisoners, prison reforms and Kenya's international credentials as a nation founded on principles of justice and human rights.

The latest research builds on last year's report that demonstrates that public will is sharply moving in favour of abolishing the death penalty. While hanging for capital offences remains on our statutes, nobody has been executed since 1987. In 2009, Kenya's third President Mwai Kibaki powerfully declared that the mental anguish of languishing on death row was inhumane treatment and proceeded to commute the death sentences of 4,000 prisoners to life imprisonment.