Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) chairperson Kagwiria Mbogori and UN Crime Research Centre coordinator Sidhart Chaterjjee during the launch of atwo-days workshop to abolish Death Penalty, Thursday.
The Power Of Mercy Advisory Committee (POMAC) in-collaboration with the United Nations Crime Research Centre (UN-CRC), the Attorney General’s office, and the Department of Justice, on Thursday morning launched a workshop to have Kenya’s Death Penalty abolished.
Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) chairperson Kagwiria Mbogori said the two-days workshop being held at Nairobi’s InterContinental Hotel, seeks to engage members of the public on whether death penalty is the suitable form of justice in the country.
She said the workshop also aims to establish whether Death Penalty results to inhumane, cruel or degrading treatment given that it is irrevocable and could result into punishing innocent people.
Speaking at the event, UN Crime Research Centre coordinator Sidhart Chaterjjee said about 170 UN members states have abolished the death penalty or no longer practice it.
He hailed Kenya for commuting death penalties to inmates and urged global leaders to push for the abolition of Death Penalty, and possibly replace it with life sentences.
The workshop has brought together various rights groups from around the globe.
This comes after President Uhuru Kenyatta commuted the sentences of all the country’s death row inmates to life imprisonment in October 2016, by sparing lives of 2,655 male and another 92 female inmates.