CJ Koome proposes life sentence be capped at 30 years
2 min read
Chief Justice (CJ) Martha Koome in a bill to parliament proposes amendment of Penal Code to limit life sentence ‘imprisonment for life’
Chief Justice (CJ) Martha Koome in a bill to parliament proposes amendment of Penal Code to limit life sentence ‘imprisonment for life’.
The proposed amendment to Section 4 of the Penal Code (Amendment) Act, 2023 will reduce life sentence to a maximum of thirty years.
This follows earlier this year’s ruling by the Court of Appeal, which described an indeterminate life sentence as unjust and a gradual death penalty.
Pauline Nyamweya, Jessie Lessit, and George Odunga, the appellate judges, ruled that a life sentence should not be equivalent to the prisoner’s natural life term.
The ruling was based on the European Court of Human Rights’ conclusion that putting someone in jail for an extended period of time without the possibility of release constitutes inhumane punishment and is therefore degrading.
According to the proposed bill, “A person convicted of second-degree murder shall be liable to imprisonment for life.”
“Any person who, by any other unlawful act or omission, causes the death of another person, commits second-degree murder,” reads the Bill partly.
An unlawful omission is one resulting in culpable negligence when discharging a duty tending to the preservation of life or health.
This is regardless of whether such omission “is or is not accompanied by an intention to cause death or bodily injury.”
Ruto ally dares Azimio to pull out of bipartisan talks
Raila tells Kenyans to boycott Ruto’s new taxes
‘We’ll remove the Israeli Embassy and arm Hamas’, Julius Malema
Karua officially launches officially Kamwene Caucus, declares stand on Azimio
Israel soldier killed with several injured in an attempt to free hostages held by Hamas in Gaza
Ruto’s security advisor bodyguards open fire on armed gunman after ambush
On the other hand, persons convicted of first-degree murder shall be liable to be sentenced to death.
First-degree murder covers the intentional cause of death to someone through unlawful acts including poisoning, arson, kidnapping, torture, child abuse, terrorist acts, injury by explosive substances, burglary, and robbery.
Persons convicted of attempted robbery with firearms and second-degree robbery will also be liable to life imprisonment.
As per the Bill, second-degree robbery constitutes threatening someone one steals from with “any other form of violence to any person or property in order to obtain or retain the thing stolen or to prevent or overcome resistance to it being stolen or retained.”
Also read,
Uhuru Kenyatta dismisses DP Gachagua’s call for truce
MET department responds after Ruto remarks on now unlikely El-Nino
Parliament opens inquiry into compromised safety standards of planes operated by Skyward Express
Kabogo opens up on his relationship with Uhuru Kenyatta “I thought we were friends”
US can’t build ‘new world order’; Kremlin
Follow us
