- Report revealed that the majority of those sentenced to death (56 per cent) were convicted of robbery with violence with 44 per cent of murder.
- The report added that most prisoners (89 per cent) were responsible for supporting dependents.
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Kenya has approximately 600 prisoners on death row, a report by Kenya National Commission on Human Rights shows.
The report, which was released on Tuesday, said many more have been sentenced to death in the past decades but have had their sentences commuted to life imprisonment.
It revealed that the majority of those sentenced to death (56 per cent) were convicted of robbery with violence with 44 per cent of murder.
The study further said most prisoners on death row were poorly educated with more than one in 10 having never received formal education and two-thirds only having completed primary school.
"Fifteen per cent reported that they had been experiencing mental health problems, higher than the national average," the report added.
The report, Living with a Death Sentence: Prisoners' Experiences of Crime, Punishment and Death Row was compiled following a study commissioned by the University of Oxford Death Penalty Research Unit.
The study revealed that only one in 10 was in permanent full-time employment.
"Some 79 per cent of participants were in the two lowest categories of social stratification: ‘semi-routine’ or ‘routine’ occupations," it added.
"Their average wage was below the Kenyan minimum wage."
The report added that most prisoners (89 per cent) were responsible for supporting dependents.
"More than one-third were in debt. Almost half (43 per cent) said that they had been relying on alcohol and almost one-third had a history of alcohol or substance misuse, higher rates than the national average," the study revealed.
While 120 countries around the world have now abolished the death penalty, including 25 in Africa, Kenya is one of 22 African nations that continues to retain the death penalty in law, albeit it has not carried out any executions for more than three decades.
As such, Kenya is classified as ‘abolitionist de facto’, the United Nations term for a country that has not carried out an execution for at least 10 years.
"As long as the death penalty is retained in law, there remains a risk that executions might resume if there is political change. Moreover, the plight and turmoil of those languishing on death row – consistently the poorest and most vulnerable – cannot be ignored. They are disproportionately sentenced to death and suffer the harshest punishments and treatment," the report added.
The study was conducted on a sample of 671 prisoners across 12 Kenyan prisons, and it included not only those currently under sentence of death but also those previously sentenced to death who later had their sentence commuted.