The President of Kenya, Mwai Kibaki, announced on August 3 that he is com­mut­ing the death sen­tences of every­one on the coun­try’s death row to life impris­on­ment. The President cit­ed the wait to face exe­cu­tion of the more than 4,000 death row inmates as ​“undue men­tal anguish and suf­fer­ing.” No one has been exe­cut­ed in Kenya for 22 years. The President said he was fol­low­ing the advice of a con­sti­tu­tion­al com­mit­tee. Mr. Kibaki has direct­ed gov­ern­ment offi­cials to study whether the death penal­ty has any impact on fight­ing crime and he appealed to Kenyans to engage in a nation­al debate on the issue, sug­gest­ing the gov­ern­ment may be prepar­ing the ground for a repeal of the death penalty.

Muthoni Wanyeki, the exec­u­tive direc­tor of the inde­pen­dent Kenya Human Rights Commission, said, ​“It’s been a long time com­ing.” The death penal­ty is a manda­to­ry sen­tence in Kenya for any­one con­vict­ed of armed rob­bery or murder.

(“Kenya Commutes All Death Sentences,” Associated Press, Aug. 3, 2009). See International and Time on Death Row.
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