Capital punishment is a legal penalty in

Kenya ) , national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

. Since before

independence Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the stat ...

, is still provided for under Kenyan law. No executions have been carried out in Kenya since 1987, when Hezekiah Ochuka and Pancras Oteyo Okumu, leaders of the 1982 coup d'état attempt, were

hanged Hanging is the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature around the neck.Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Hanging as method of execution is unknown, as method of suicide from 1325. The '' Oxford English Dictionary'' states that hanging ...

for

treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...

. Presidents have on occasion commuted all death sentences to life imprisonment, and thereby releasing all inmates from death row, most recently in 2016. There is no current policy to abolish the death penalty. Despite the lack of executions,

death sentence Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that ...

s are still passed in Kenya. In July 2013, Ali Babitu Kololo was sentenced to death for his role in the murder and kidnapping of two British tourists, and in 2014 a nurse received a death sentence after being convicted of carrying out an

abortion Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"; these occur in approximately 30% to 40% of pre ...

on a woman who subsequently died.

History

Capital punishment was introduced in Kenya in 1893 by the British colonial government; the practice was infrequent in pre-colonial communities, which placed a value on restorative justice. In general, most African communities did not use death sentences as part of administering justice except for offenders who had repeatedly "made themselves dangerous beyond the limits of endurance of their fellows". The penal code as created by the British stipulated a mandatory death penalty for

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person without justification or excuse, especially the ...

and

armed robbery Robbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take anything of value by force, threat of force, or by use of fear. According to common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the perso ...

. Numerous executions, documented as 1,090 in number, were carried out by the colonial government during the

Mau Mau rebellion The Mau Mau rebellion (1952–1960), also known as the Mau Mau uprising, Mau Mau revolt or Kenya Emergency, was a war in the British Kenya Colony (1920–1963) between the Kenya Land and Freedom Army (KLFA), also known as the ''Mau Mau'', ...

. After the 1982 coup d'état attempt, Hezekiah Ochuka, Pancras Oteyo Okumu and two other masterminds of the coup were convicted of treason, sentenced to death and subsequently hanged in July 1987. They were the last people executed in Kenya to date. In 2010, the

Court of Appeal A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much ...

repealed the mandatory death sentence for murder in '' Mutiso v. Republic'', the third national court in common-law Africa to do so. In 2016, President

Uhuru Kenyatta Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta (born 26 October 1961) is a Kenyan politician who served as the fourth president of Kenya from 2013 to 2022. Kenyatta was chosen by Daniel Arap Moi as his preferred successor, but Kenyatta was defeated by opposition le ...

commuted the death sentences of 2,747 inmates on death row to life imprisonment. President

Mwai Kibaki Emilio Stanley Mwai Kibaki (15 November 1931 – 21 April 2022) was a Kenyan politician who served as the third President of Kenya from December 2002 until April 2013 and is regarded as one of Kenya's founding fathers. He had previously ser ...

had implemented a similar action in 2009. All of the 4,000 death row inmates who were awaiting execution had their sentences vacated and commuted to life imprisonment. The intention was to compel the prisoners involved to partake in physical labour, from which death row prisoners are exempt. A widely circulated report in 2018-19 implied that the government had announced its intent to reintroduce the death penalty for wildlife poaching. However, the report was not adopted and no such plans are in consideration.

References

{{Africa topic, Capital punishment in

Kenya ) , national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

Society of Kenya Law of Kenya Human rights abuses in Kenya