Nairobi, Kenya, Aug 5, 2009 / 00:17 am
The head prison chaplain in Kenya has applauded President Mwai Kibaki’s decision to commute the death sentences of some 4,000 prisoners, punishing them with life imprisonment instead of death by hanging.
Murder, illegal possession of dangerous weapons, robbery with violence and treason are capital offenses in Kenya. While convicts are still sentenced to death by the courts, no one has been hanged in the country for 22 years, the Catholic Information Service for Africa (CISA) reports.
In his Monday announcement of the sentence commutations, President Kibaki said that the decision does not suggest the abolition of the death penalty.
Fr. Peter Kimani, head of the Catholic Prisons Chaplaincy, said he welcomed the move “because there are many inmates who are innocent who could have suffered death.”