Nine in 10 Kenyans support the abolishment of the death penalty that still exists in law but was last effected 35 years ago, a new study has revealed.
Provided for under Section 204 of the Penal Code, the death penalty directly conflicts with Article 26 of the Constitution, which provides for the right to life.
This is even after the mandatory death penalty was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 2017.
At least 600 people are on death row despite the fact that the last time the penalty was effected was in 1987 when the leaders of the botched 1982 coup against President Daniel Moi, Hezekiah Ochuka and Pancras Oteyo, were hanged for treason.
Led by Prof Carolyne Hoyle of the University of Oxford, the two-part study commissioned by the Death Penalty Project in collaboration with the Kenya National Human Rights Commission, sought to understand Kenyans’ attitudes towards the abolition of capital punishment.
The first part of the study that was conducted in 2021 by Infotrak Research and Consulting investigated the assumption held by many that the Kenyan public strongly supports the death penalty while the second part centred on the views of opinion shapers.
Of the 1,672 respondents questioned, 52 per cent initially supported the retention of the death penalty with only 32 per cent strongly favouring it.
Prof Hoyle noted that governments in countries that support capital punishment often cite public support as a key argument against abolition, but the findings of the research in Kenya showed this was not true.
“Not only do those in positions of influence resolutely support abolition but the public holds nuanced and flexible views that in no way impede abolition,” Prof Hoyle said.
The findings showed that, when the public is given more information about the application of the death penalty, including realistic case scenarios or mitigating circumstances surrounding the case, such as the offender’s age, background, and mental health, public support for the punishment drops dramatically.
According to Prof Hoyle, who is also the director of the Oxford Death Penalty Research Unit, support for the penalty fell by 20 per cent to 31 per cent when people were told that 17 sub-Saharan countries have abolished it.
She noted that 93 per cent of respondents thought Kenya should follow suit. Whereas the death penalty exists in countries like Kenya, Parvais Jabbar, the co-executive director of the Death Penalty Project, said there appears to be some resistance to abolishing it.
Mr Jabbar, who has represented convicts facing the death penalty in criminal and constitutional cases, said it was time for Kenya to get rid of capital punishment.
“We are starting to see a shift away from the death penalty across Africa, most recently in Sierra Leone, with new plans to abolish announced in Zambia and the Central African Republic,” he said. He said it is likely that Zimbabwe and Ghana will make similar announcements by the end of the year.
“We hope that we will also see Kenya take steps to remove capital punishment soon, and that our research can support policymakers as they consider this important issue,” he added. According to the study, 61 per cent of Kenyans believe that ‘many’ or ‘some’ innocent people have been sentenced to death and these concerns reduced support for retention among the public to 28 per cent, while 88 per cent of the those who participated in the poll believe wrongful convictions occur fairly regularly.
Of those who were initially in favour of retention the death penalty, 59 per cent said they would support its abolition despite their initial position.
The study also showed that most of those interviewed were very well informed on the administration of the death penalty in Kenya, but noted that the general public’s knowledge of the death penalty was more limited.
The findings revealed concerns among both the public and opinion shapers around the possibility that innocent people could be sentenced to death.
More than three quarters believed that the public would accept abolition of the death penalty, notwithstanding initial reservations, and nearly all would support an Act of Parliament to abolish capital punishment.
Lady Justice Grace Nzioka of the High Court’s Criminal Division, who was one of the speakers during the release of the report’s findings, stated that, to abolish the death penalty in Kenya, there is need to have amendments to statutory law.
