Amnesty International wants the Kenyan government to reduce the life imprisonment sentence to 20 years.
This is in the wake of a proposal by the Judiciary seeking to make changes in the penalties given to capital offenders.
The Penal Code (Amendment) Bill 2023 and Criminal Procedure Code (Amendment) 2023 by the National Council on the Administration of Justice (NCAJ) through the National Committee on Criminal Justice Reforms (NCCJR) seek to reduce the sentences of murderers, sex offenders, and those facing life in prison to 30 years.
Amnesty International Kenya Executive Director Irungu Houghton says the human rights organization wants the term reduced to 20 years and focused on rehabilitating convicts to upright members of society instead of being more of a punishment.
“As Amnesty International, we would press for 20 years and if 20 years is not acceptable in the country, then 30 would be sufficient. The way to look at life imprisonment is not as a way of locking people away for a long period of time but creating the conditions for people to be rehabilitated so that they can return to society,” Houghton told Citizen TV during Wednesday’s Day Break program.
“For those that show no signs of remorse, they can stay there for the full period.”
Kenya’s current law, 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.