Lang’ata Prison beauty queen Ruth Kamande has received a lot of attention after she was sentenced to death for the brutal murder of her boyfriend in 2015.
Many Kenyans have wondered if and how Kamande’s sentence will be implemented given the confusion surrounding the death sentence in Kenya.
Pulselive.co.ke established that although Kenya has not sent any convict to the hangman in the past three decades, it remains a part of Kenyan law.
The penal code prescribes the death sentence for capital offences which include robbery with violence, murder, and sedition.
The Supreme Court had last years ruled the death sentence to be unconstitutional but in March this year, Attorney General Githu Muigai said the ruling had not abolished the death penalty.
A task force formed by Muigai is expected to complete its review of the death penalty by March 2019.
Part of the failure to carry out death sentence has been as a result of reluctance by successive Presidents to approve the execution of death row inmates.
President Mwai Kibaki commuted death sentences of all inmates into life sentences. A similar move was made by President Uhuru Kenyatta in 2016.
President Daniel arap Moi was the last head of state to sign an execution order against Sergeant Joseph Ogidi, who was hanged at Kamiti Maximum Security Prison in 1987 along with six other soldiers of the Kenya Air Force for their role in the 1982 failed coup.