Kenya Spares the Lives of Everyone on Its Death Row

NAIROBI, Kenya — With a stroke of his pen, President Uhuru Kenyatta spared the lives of thousands of prisoners on Kenya’s death row on Monday by commuting their sentences to life in prison.

Kenyan law allows capital punishment and convicts are regularly sentenced to death, but the sentence is almost never carried out; the last execution was in 1987. In colonial times, the British authorities executed more than 1,000 Kenyans who were accused of fomenting revolt.

Kenyan news sites beamed images of Mr. Kenyatta leaning over his desk on Monday, surrounded by top officials, as he signed documents that spared the lives of 2,655 men and 92 women. Kenya’s last president, Mwai Kibaki, did something similar in 2009. Full Story

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