A report by The Death Penalty Project, dubbed Living With a Death Sentence in Kenya indicates most convicts were poorly educated.
In the survey, 671 prisoners, across 12 prisons who have been sentenced to death were interviewed and more than two-thirds had only completed primary school.
"Most were poorly educated. More than 1 in 10 had never been in formal education and more than 2/3 had only completed primary school," the report read.
It also stated that more than 1 in 10 prisoners had never been in formal education.
"Only 1 in 10 was in permanent full-time employment," the report said.
The report said almost half of the prisoners who participated in the survey said that they had been relying on alcohol, while a third had a history of alcohol or substance misuse.
"This is higher than the national average," it said.
15 per cent of those interviewed reported that they had been experiencing mental health problems while 89 per cent of the prisoners were responsible for supporting dependents, while others were in debt.
During the interviews, information sought was on the prisoner's lives at the time they committed their offences, their socio-economic status and any vulnerabilities and disadvantages
"Their pathways to, and motivations for, offending, including why they were not deterred by harsh punishments were also considered," the report read.
