The Nation

KENYA: Jail Chiefs Oppose Hangi

The death penalty is outdated and should be scrapped, East Africa's prison bosses have said.

They said it was not a solution in the rehabilitation of prisoners.

 Mr Abraham Kamakil, Kenya's Commissioner of Prisons, and Mr Joseph Etima, his Ugandan counterpart, called for the repeal of the law, saying death should not be a "correctional measure".

 But Tanzania's Principal Commissioner of Prisons Pius Banzi called for thorough debate on the matter, saying a section of the population supported the contentious law.

 "We might be against it but the society might not be ready to let go of the law," he added.

 However, Mr Banzi called for law changes that would lead to rehabilitation of inmates.

 Speaking at Prisons headquarters after receiving his East African colleagues who were en route to Burkina Faso for a conference, Mr Kamakil said: "We don't feel the death sentence is useful in the rehabilitation of prisoners."

 Citing a story in the Nation on Monday where a woman was wrongly convicted of murder, Mr Etima said prisoners needed rehabilitation and not hanging.

 "The death penalty is not a solution since a life is destroyed by the law," he said.

 The penalty is used in the 3 East African countries against those convicted of murder and robbery with violence.

 As at January 5, 2001, in Kenya, some 1,925 inmates were on death row.

 The last hanging, however, was in 1987, when Hezekiah Ochuka and Pancras Oteyo Okumu were executed for staging the August 1, 1982, attempted coup.

 Mr Etima said there was always a chance of an innocent man being sentenced to death.

 Mr Kamakil cited congestion as one of the major problems in Kenyan prisons. The 92 stations, which were meant to hold 15,000 inmates, now have 38,000.