Ruth Kamande: Quick facts on Kenya's death sentence
Ruth Wanjiku Kamande. She was sentenced to death for the murder of her boyfriend. PHOTO | COURTESY
On Thursday, beauty queen Ruth Kamande became the latest guest of the hangman.
Kamande was sentenced to death for stabbing to death her boyfriend Farid Mohammed in Buru Buru, Nairobi, in 2015.
As the debate on merits of the sentence continues online, here are quick facts on death sentence in Kenya:
The Kenyan Constitution still allows capital punishment, which has been practised for over 70 years.
There are currently more than 4,500 convicts on death row.
Kenya has no serving hangman. The last one, Kirugumi Wa Wanjiku, who served in Kamiti, died of pneumonia in Abadares in 2009. He was aged 86.
No execution has been done in Kenya since the 1987 hanging of Kenya Air Force Senior Private Hezekiah Ochuka, Pancras Oteyo Okumu and two others who were found guilty of treason.
They were convicted for their involvement in the 1982 attempted coup against the government of President Daniel arap Moi.
Five main crimes that warrant capital punishment are: murder, treason, oath-taking for crimes by proscribed criminal outfits, robbery with violence and attempted robbery with violence.
Note that killing of a baby, aged 12 moths and below, by its own mother is not murder but infanticide, which attracts manslaughter convictions.
Death row convicts serve in jail, hoping for the commutation of their sentences to life by the president through the Power of Mercy.
Some convicts have even been released after serving for some years.
The power of Mercy is invoked as provided for by Article 133 of the Constitution.
Currently, there is a task force that is meant to review the death row. The court directed the office of the AG to do so after human rights groups petitioned.
