Busia residents have blamed President Uhuru Kenyatta and his predecessors Daniel Arap Moi and Mwai Kibaki for the increase in capital offences in the country. Presenting their views before the Power of Mercy Advisory Committee at Busia Agricultural Training College on Monday, the residents said failure to sign the death warrant since 1987 had abated capital offences and capital punishment in the country.
“Once the Courts of Law have convicted capital offenders to a death sentence why should the President not sign the death warrant?” they asked, adding inmates serving a life sentence should remain in prison until death.
The committee Vice-Chair Regina Boisabi said there are over 3,000 inmates on death row in Kenya since 1987 and who are waiting for the President to sign the death warrant to condemn them to the gallows.
Boisabi said Busia stakeholders were loud and clear that capital offenders should be hanged. They also want the law on capital offence strengthened.
The residents also want rapists, defilers, terrorists and economic crime perpetrators included in the list of capital offenders.
Busia County Commissioner Mongo Chimwaga said capital offenders should not be released on bond, adding that they interfere with investigations, tamper with evidence and scare witnesses from attending court sessions.
Members of the judiciary, provincial administration, and church leaders want the death sentence done away with and replaced with a life sentence.
Reverend Ouma Opiyo differed with his church colleagues when he proposed the death sentence as a deterrent measure to capital offenders. However, he proposed for mobile courts to hear evidence from the scenes of crime.
A police officer Charles Ouma blamed the judicial system for dishing out bonds to capital offenders irrationally. “We are being branded all sorts of names for taking Sh50 bribe. When we make arrests capital offenders are released on bond. Bonds should be removed,” he said.