Chief Justice Martha Koome has presented two bills in the National Assembly that seek to change the penalties given to capital offenders.
The bills, Criminal Procedure Code (Amendment) 2023 and Penal Code (Amendment) Bill 2023, seek to reduce the sentences of murderers, sex offenders, and those facing life in prison to 30 years.
According to Kenya's current law, a person can be sentenced to death if found guilty of murder, robbery with violence, or treason.
Koome 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 the “principal act."
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Koome wants sections 66, 153, 154, 155, 171, 173, 182, 191, 192, 193, 194, 195, 196, 197, 198, 199, and 200 removed from the main Act.
In addition, she requests that the terms "for life" in Sections 220 and 222 be changed to "for a period not exceeding thirty years."
She also wants new regulations on the degrees of murder to take the place of section 203.
According to Koome, if someone kills another person via the commission of an illegal act or omission or through malicious intent, that counts as first-degree murder.
Some are poisoning, inflicting severe injuries, or carrying out any other type of intentional, malicious, and planned killing.
"...any arson, treason, escape, murder, kidnapping, abduction, torture, injury by explosive substances, terrorist act, espionage, sabotage, intimidation, molestation, sexual offence, child abuse, housebreaking, burglary, or robbery," the CJ added on the offenses under first-degree murders.
According to the CJ, the bill's primary goal is to amend the Penal Code to include human-rights-friendly language about people with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities.
"...to remove the subjection of children sentenced in lieu of death penalty from detention at the President’s pleasure; to shift the burden of proof for the offences of incitement to violence and disobedience from the accused person to the prosecution; and to repeal petty offences," she said.
The Bill also seeks to amend the Penal Code to protect intersex people 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 Magistrate's Courts Act, 2015 and to review the provisions governing the transfer of cases between magistrates.
Further, it seeks to shorten the operational period for suspended sentences and repeal all provisions relating to security for peacekeeping and good behavior.
