Rethinking death sentence progressive for Kenya

NAIROBI: The death penalty could be abolished. Attorney General Githu Muigai says Kenyans will have the opportunity to discuss an alternative to the death penalty in accordance with the provisions of the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights on the death penalty.

While launching the Power of Mercy Advisory Committee Strategic Plan for 2015/2018, Prof Muigai said there was need for open debate on the death sentence as punishment for capital offences.

The Power of Mercy Committee is an advisory body created by an Act of Parliament to advise the President on petitions for mercy from inmates facing the death sentence.

Under the 2010 Constitution, the President is empowered to substitute harsh punishment with a less severe one.

Tellingly, in Kenya, the last person was executed in 1986.

The Penal Code exists to maintain law and order in society. Those found to break the law must pay for it.

However, with the advent of human rights and reviews in various constitutions worldwide, the death sentence has gradually become abhorrent.

The argument that the human rights body and other activists raise in favour of the abolition of the death sentence is that it is a violation of the fundamental right to life, which our Constitution embraces.

Other arguments have been that judicial errors could end up robbing people of their right to life for crimes they did not commit.

Methods of execution for those on death row range from the electric chair, the noose to lethal injections, all of which have been noted to inflict severe pain.

Scientists claim that it infringes on the dignity of the person by causing mental and physical pain not only to the victim, but the victim's family and friends.

To date, only a moratorium on the death sentence exists, but there are plans to do away with the punishment completely.

So far, 140 countries have placed a moratorium on the death penalty and it would be fair for Kenya to join them as this will not negate the Constitution which protects everybody's right to life.