Explainer: The death sentence puzzle

Joseph Irungu alias Jowie’s sentence drudged up the debate on the place of the death penalty in Kenya. This was the moment Kenyans were reacquainted with the very heavy penalty of a death sentence rendered on live television. 

Joseph Irungu became the latest recipient of the controversial punishment that until 2017, was a mandatory penalty for murder by law.

In the case of Francis Karioko Murutatetu & Another vs. the Republic, Petition No. 15 & 16 of 2015 (consolidated) the Supreme Court declared the mandatory nature of the death sentence for murder, unconstitutional.

What this meant was after 2017, the death penalty could still be rendered for murder but at the discretion of a judge. The execution was still set as the maximum penalty but was not to be the only penalty for murder.

Justice Grace Nzioka on Wednesday decided to hand Irungu the death penalty considering the gravity of the crime and what she described as the “far-reaching consequence” of the offence.

Since 2017, the courts have been rendering death sentences. In fact, by the end of 2022, there were 656 people recorded on death row in Kenya. 

A total of 79 death sentences were handed down that year alone according to an Amnesty International report.

Currently, people convicted of murder, robbery with violence, attempted robbery with violence or treason can be sentenced to death.

Since independence, some 280 convicts who were sentenced to death were executed in Kenya.

The last person to face the hangman’s noose was Hezekiah Ochuka who was found guilty of treason for the 1982 attempted coup. He was hanged at the Kamiti Maximum prison in July 1987.

The Senior Private in the Kenya Air Force was exactly two weeks shy of his 34th birthday by the time he met his demise.