Capital punishment in Kenya

Capital punishment has been a legal penalty in Kenya since before its independence, and continues to be so under Kenyan law. No executions have been carried out in Kenya since 1987,[1] when Hezekiah Ochuka and Pancras Oteyo Okumu, leaders of the 1982 coup d'état attempt, were hanged for treason.[2]

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.[3]

Despite the lack of executions, death sentences 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,[4] and in 2014 a nurse received a death sentence after being convicted of carrying out an abortion on a woman who subsequently died[5] although her sentence was eventually reversed by the court of appeal in Kenya

  1. ^ "Plan on to remove death penalty: AG". nation.co.ke. 30 March 2015.
  2. ^ "Kenya National Commission On Human Rights - Abolition Of The Death Penalty In Kenya" (PDF). Kenya National Commission On Human Rights. Retrieved 8 November 2016.
  3. ^ "BBC News - Kenya empties its death-row cells". news.bbc.co.uk. 3 August 2009. Retrieved 2016-11-07.
  4. ^ "David and Judith Tebbutt: Kenya imposes death sentence". BBC News. 2013-07-29. Retrieved 2016-11-07.
  5. ^ "Kenyan nurse gets death penalty for abortion". BBC News. 2014-09-25. Retrieved 2016-11-07.