Chief Justice Martha Koome has presented two bills to parliament that seek to make changes in the penalties given to capital offenders.
The bills, Penal Code (Amendment) Bill 2023 and Criminal Procedure Code (Amendment) 2023, seek to reduce the sentences of murderers, sex offenders, and those facing life in prison to 30 years.
Kenya’s current law, which was drafted in the 1930s by its former colony Britain, states that a person can be sentenced to death if found guilty of murder, robbery with violence, or treason.
Koome wants parliament to approve a change to Section 112A of the Penal Code in subsection (4) that replaces the word “manslaughter” with the words “second-degree murder.”
Section 4 of the Penal Code is known as the “principal act.”.
By amending the principal Act, Koome wants the deletion of sections 66, 153, 154, 155, 171, 173, 182, 191, 192, 193, 194, 195, 196, 197, 198, 199 and 200.
She also wants Sections 220 and 222 amended to remove the words “for life” and replace them with “for a period not exceeding thirty years.”
She also wants section 203 repealed and replaced with new guidelines on the degrees of murder.
Koome contended that a person commits first-degree murder if they cause the death of another person by committing, or attempting to commit, an unlawful act or omission, or committing malice.
Others are poisoning, causing grievous harm, or engaging in any other wilful, deliberate, malicious, and premeditated killing.