10th October was the World Day Against the Death Penalty. The theme ‘Death Penalty: an irreversible torture’ captured the sheer torture cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment of those on death row. While Kenya has been an abolitionist country in practice for the last 35 years, serious criminals are still sentenced to death. The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights research has demonstrated that the death penalty is not a deterrent for serious criminals and forty per cent of Kenyans now want it abolished. Hon Opiyo Wandayi has several legal amendments now before Parliament seeking to legally abolish this inhumane practice.
Join Amnesty in calling for the abolition of the death penalty by signing this petition and enable us to keep you posted on this campaign. If we are successful, we will join 111 countries that have banned this practice globally. As legendary US abolitionist Bryan Stevenson argues, why would civilised societies execute broken men and women?
I join the call to abolish the 130-year-old practice of the death penalty in Kenya.