High Court declares life sentence as absurd and unconstitutional
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High Court Judge Nixon Sifuna rules life sentence is archaic, absurd and unconstitutional
High Court Judge Nixon Sifuna rules life sentence is archaic, absurd and unconstitutional
The High Court in Murang’a has termed life imprisonment as unconstitutional stating that it is unreasonable and absurd.
In a judgment by Justice Nixon Sifuna, he compared it to a death sentence, saying even though one is terminal and the other is not, they are the two sides of the same coin in terms of their severity and permanence.
He added that the sentence”permanently” deletes a convict from society and violates the right to human dignity.
In the landmark ruling, the judge opined that life imprisonment is undignifying and undermines the right to human dignity enshrined in Article 28 of the Kenyan Constitution 2010.
“It is also an indignifying sentence, hence violates the right to human dignity, guaranteed under Article 28 of the Kenya Constitution 2010. It is therefore unsupportable irrespective of the logic or whatsoever rationalisation of aggravating factors that may be advanced in support,” Sifuna ruled.
The ruling follows an appeal filed by Justus Ndung’u Ndung’u who was found guilty of incest contrary to section 20 (1) of the Sexual Offences Act by a Kigumo Senior Resident Magistrate.
Ndung’u is believed to have defiled his 10-year-old daughter on 18th May 2017 at Wemba Location in Murang’a County, and was consequently sentenced to life imprisonment.
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While delivering the judgment, Justice Sifuna argued that life sentence is deceptive and is related to death sentence. He described it as an indefinite and unquantifiable sentence that denies the prisoner any hope of eventual release.
Sifuna’s judgment comes eight months after Court of Appeal declared life imprisonment unconstitutional. Justices Pauline Nyamweya, Jessie Lesiit and George Odunga all agreed that the purpose of jailing a person is to either deter, denounce, retribute or rehabilitate for the offence committed.
They argued that it was totally unfair to outlaw mandatory death sentence, only for a person to be locked in prison till death.
“While the death sentence is retained in statute books, in reality, and for all practical purposes, it no longer exists. However, it is not for us to delete it from the statute books. What is however clear is that in terms of execution, there is no distinction between a death sentence and a life sentence,” they said.
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