Amnesty wants life imprisonment sentence reduced to 20 years

Amnesty International wants the Kenyan government to reduce the life imprisonment sentence to 20 years.

This is in the wake of a proposal by the Judiciary seeking to make changes in the penalties given to capital offenders.

The Penal Code (Amendment) Bill 2023 and Criminal Procedure Code (Amendment) 2023 by the National Council on the Administration of Justice (NCAJ) through the National Committee on Criminal Justice Reforms (NCCJR) seek to reduce the sentences of murderers, sex offenders, and those facing life in prison to 30 years.

Amnesty International Kenya Executive Director Irungu Houghton says the human rights organization wants the term reduced to 20 years and focused on rehabilitating convicts to upright members of society instead of being more of a punishment.

“As Amnesty International, we would press for 20 years and if 20 years is not acceptable in the country, then 30 would be sufficient. The way to look at life imprisonment is not as a way of locking people away for a long period of time but creating the conditions for people to be rehabilitated so that they can return to society,” Houghton told Citizen TV during Wednesday’s Day Break program.

“For those that show no signs of remorse, they can stay there for the full period.”

Kenya's current law, drafted in the 1930s by its former colony Britain, states that a person can be sentenced to death if found guilty of murder, robbery with violence, or treason.

The Judiciary wants parliament to approve a change to Section 112A of the Penal Code in subsection (4) that replaces the word "manslaughter" with the words "second-degree murder."

Section 4 of the Penal Code is known as the “principal act” and by amending it, the Judiciary wants the deletion of sections 66, 153, 154, 155, 171, 173, 182, 191, 192, 193, 194, 195, 196, 197, 198, 199 and 200.

They also want Sections 220 and 222 amended to remove the words "for life" and replace them with "for a period not exceeding thirty years."

Houghton however says there is a need to revise the Armed Forces Act, which he says has provisions that continue to maintain the ‘death penalty’.

“There is a need to look at the Armed Forces Act and state the term for life imprisonment,” he said.

NCAJ, which is chaired by Chief Justice Martha Koome also wants Section 203 repealed and replaced with new guidelines on the degrees of murder.

The council contended that a person commits first-degree murder if they cause the death of another person by committing or attempting to commit, an unlawful act or omission, or committing malice.

Others are poisoning, causing grievous harm, or engaging in any other wilful, deliberate, malicious, and premeditated killing.

The primary goal of this bill, according to NCAJ, is to amend the Penal Code to include human-rights-friendly language in relation to people with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities.

The bill also seeks to amend the Penal Code to protect intersex people who are involved in the criminal justice system.

The main goal of the Criminal Procedure Code (Amendment) 2023 Bill is to align the Criminal Procedure Code with the provisions of the Magistrate's Courts Act, 2015, and to review the provisions governing the transfer of cases between magistrates.

It also seeks to shorten the operational period for suspended sentences and repeal all provisions relating to security for peacekeeping and good behaviour.