Kenya: No crime justifies the death sentence

LONDON, 20 July. - (ANA) - Following Kenya’s High Court sentencing of Ruth Kamande to death for killing her boyfriend, Amnesty International Kenya’s Executive Director, Irungu Houghton, said:

“We are concerned that Kenya continues to use this cruel, inhumane and outdated mode of punishment. This sentence is a blow to Kenya’s progressive record in commuting death sentences to terms of imprisonment.

“There isn’t any credible evidence that the death penalty deters crime any better than other lawful punishments. This death sentence must be commuted immediately and Ruth Kamande rehabilitated.”

Ruth Kamande was sentenced to death after being found guilty of killing her boyfriend in 2015, by stabbing him 25 times.

Kenya has made good strides against the use of the death penalty. It has not carried out an execution in 30 years, and two Presidents have commuted the death sentences of entire death row populations in the last 10 years.

Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception regardless of the nature of the crime, the characteristics of the offender, or the method used by the state to kill the prisoner. The death penalty is a violation of the right to life as proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.   - (ANA) -

AB/ANA/20 July 2018 - - -