The majority of robbery with violence convicts on death row were motivated by money, to commit the crime, a report by Kenya National Commission on Human Rights.
The report, ‘Living with a Death Sentence in Kenya: Prisoners’ Experiences of Crime, Punishment and Death Row’ shows that 72 per cent of the robbery convicts were motivated by financial gain.
According to the report, more than half of those convicted of robbery were employed either in routine occupations or have unreliable jobs.
“More than half of those convicted of robbery were employed in routine occupations and more precarious employment, for which they earned less, on average than those employed in routine occupations but charged with murder,” the report says.
Those convicted of robbery earned Sh15,241 a month compared with Sh24,542 for those convicted of murder according to the report.
The study drew a sample of 671 prisoners across 12 prisons including those currently under sentence of death and those previously sentenced to death and later had their sentence commuted.
The report shows that on the other hand, the majority of those convicted of murder were driven by anger.
From the report, 27 per cent committed the offence due to anger, 23 per cent due to provocation while another 13 per cent were triggered by an ‘extreme emotional situation’ while 17 per cent claimed to have acted in self-defence.
“With almost two-thirds of those who committed murder stirred by a state of heightened emotion, it is crucial to ask about participants’ state of mind before offending,” the report says.
The report provides a comprehensive analysis of the lives of prisoners on death row in Kenya with a focus on prisoners’ socio-economic backgrounds and profiles, their pathways to, and motivation for, offending, as well as their experiences of the criminal justice process and imprisonment.
