Inmates at the Kamiti Maximum Prison on Tuesday called on the Supreme Court to rule on the petition seeking determination of the constitutionality of the death sentence.
The number of death row convicts at the prison has risen to 130 in one year since President Uhuru Kenyatta
to life imprisonment, including
2,655 males and 92 females.
Former policemen Dickson Munene and Morris Kaberia urged the apex court to rule on the application that may shake up the country's penal code, and Parliament to amend the penal code and remove the death penalty.
Munene was serving death sentence for murder of former Gatundu North MP Patrick Muiruri's son Dr. James Ng'ang'a in a bar brawl in Westlands, Nairobi, on January 24, 2009. Kaberia also imprisoned for life was serving death sentence for robbery with violence.
He said the sentence is discriminatory and inhumane.
Munene said the sentence in disproportionate
and does not serve any correctional role. He also noted that commuting death sentence to life imprisonment does not help the matter.
"It is like moving a burden from the head to the shoulder," he added.
Inmates during the International Day on Death Penalty at the Kamiti maximum prison. /JOSEPH NDUNDA
"We have talked about this issue for long. Let us move forward and find a solution. Let us help the Supreme Court make this ruling. It has been there for nine months."
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Munene was speaking at the prison where inmates joined the others world over to mark the international day against the death sentence.
The event is held to push calls for abolition of the penalty.
Kaberia said the sentence is excessive and discriminatory "only served to the poor who can't hire competent lawyers to represent them".
"Capital punishment is punishment
for lack
of capital," he said.
An inmate speaks during the International Day on Death Penalty. /JOSEPH NDUNDA
Former death row inmate Peter Ouko called on stakeholders to hasten push for repeal of the penal code to remove the death sentence and replace life imprisonment with a determinate sentence.
Ouko moratorium by the government should be supported by review of the laws to define penalties that proportional to offences.