Kenyan Justice Minister Kiraitu Murungi announced that those on the nation’s death row will soon have their sen­tences com­mut­ed to life impris­on­ment. Murungi not­ed that he is work­ing close­ly with Kenya’s President’s Office to bring the nation into com­pli­ance with its oblig­a­tions under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. ​“We are com­mit­ted to abol­ish­ing the death penal­ty. The death sen­tence is a vio­la­tion of the right to life,” he said. In the 1970s, Kenya argued that the death penal­ty would deter crime, but the nation’s lead­ers have since found no down­turn in crime. Following a 1982 coup attempt, no death war­rants issued by the courts were ever signed by the President, and in February 2003, President Kibaki ordered the release of 28 pris­on­ers on death row and com­mut­ed the sen­tences of 195 others. 

(The Nation — Nairobi, June 7, 2005, on allAfrica​.com). See International Death Penalty.

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