The number of prisoners seeking presidential pardon has dropped by a third following a Supreme Court ruling that declared mandatory death penalty unconstitutional.
The Power of Mercy Advisory Committee said the number of petitions from convicts facing the hangman’s noose dropped from 206 in 2019/20 to 62 last year, a 30 percent slump.
The committee chaired by Attorney General Kihara Kariuki said a number of death row convicts are now trapped in jail after they opted to apply for resentencing instead of presidential clemency following the apex court ruling.
“The drop in petitions was occasioned by the significant number of long-serving convicts, who are by design the target of the Power of Mercy, that chose the court as the redress route, thereby locking themselves out of the petition process,” Mr Kariuki said in a report to Parliament.
The Supreme Court in 2017 ruled that the mandatory death penalty violates fundamental human rights and declared it unconstitutional.
The apex court delivered a judgment on December 14, 2017, following a petition by death row convicts Francis Karioko Muruatetu and Wilson Thirimbu Mwangi who had been jailed since 2003.