Kenya has commuted the death sentences of all 2,747 prisoners on the nation’s death row. On October 24, President Uhuru Kenyatta signed orders sparing the lives of 2,655 men and 92 women who had been sentenced to death, commuting their sentences to terms of life in prison. While Kenya still authorizes the death penalty, it has not carried out an execution in nearly 30 years. In August 2009, former President Mwai Kibaki commuted the death sentences of the more than 4,000 prisoners who were then on Kenya’s death row. One year later, Kenya’s Court of Appeal ruled that the country’s mandatory death penalty law was unconstitutional, overturning hundreds of death sentences. Muthoni Wanyeki, a regional director of Amnesty International, praised President Kenyatta’s action, saying: “The decision to commute death sentences brings Kenya closer to the growing community of nations that have abolished this cruel and inhuman form of punishment. It must now be abolished for posterity.” Nearly two-thirds of the world’s countries have abolished capital punishment in law or practice. Among those countries that retain it, the 28 executions carried out in the United States in 2015 placed it fifth in the world behind only China (with more than 1,000 executions), Iran (977), Pakistan (326), and Saudi Arabia (158).

(See M. Payton, “Kenya commutes sentences of all death row inmates,” The Independent, October 25, 2016; J. Gettleman, “Kenya Spares the Lives of Everyone on Its Death Row,” The New York Times, October 24, 2016; “Death row convicts get a reprieve,” The Presidency, Official Website of the President of Kenya, October 24, 2016.) See International.

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