Kenya
Death penalty and prisoners' rights · Archive since 1999
Data card
- Legal status
- Abolitionist de facto
- Executions recorded in 2026
- 0
- Executions recorded in 2025
- 0
- First news item in the archive
- JANUARY 1, 1999 · Murder, treason and armed robbery are capital crimes
- News items in the archive
- 328
Source: Hands Off Cain database, updated to 2026.
Kenya is classified as Abolitionist de facto in the Hands Off Cain database, updated to 2026. In 2026 the association recorded 0 executions in the country, against 0 the year before. The archive holds 328 news items on Kenya, from 1999 to today.
Latest news
- AUGUST 11, 2007KenyaDEATH PENALTY
SEVEN SENTENCED TO DEATH IN CONGO FOR MURDER
the Butembo Military Tribunal in Nord Kivu (in eastern DR Congo) has sentenced two Congolese nationals...
- AUGUST 1, 2007KenyaDEATH PENALTY
KENYA. DEATH PENALTY HERE TO STAY, MP’S DECIDE
Members of Parliament in Kenya defeated a Motion seeking to abolish the death penalty
- JULY 24, 2007KenyaDEATH PENALTY
KENYA: WOMAN TO HANG FOR POISONING CHILDREN
the High Court in Nakuru, Kenya, sentenced a woman to death for poisoning her son and two stepchildren.
- JULY 9, 2007KenyaDEATH PENALTY
KENYA. CALL FOR ABOLITION AS THOUSANDS AWAIT EXECUTION
politicians from leading parties and prominent human rights activists
- JULY 4, 2007KenyaDEATH PENALTY
KENYA. SENTENCED TO HANG FOR MOBILE PHONE THEFT
a man in Kenya was sentenced to death for stealing personal effects, including a mobile phone, worth 15,000 shillings (225 dollars), judicial sources said.
- MAY 2, 2007KenyaDEATH PENALTY
eight people on death row challenged the sentence...
eight people on death row challenged the sentence...
- APRIL 18, 2007KenyaDEATH PENALTY
KENYA. NATIONAL COMMISSION CALLS FOR ABOLITION OF DEATH PENALTY
Parliament should take urgent steps to abolish the death penalty in Kenya. It should freeze all current death sentences and transfer convicts on the death row to life imprisonment, through a Presidential declaration.
- MARCH 8, 2007KenyaDEATH PENALTY
KENYA. MAN SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR MURDER OF GIRLFRIEND
after more than two years of trial, a Nairobi court found James Love Mwangongo guilty of murdering his
- FEBRUARY 18, 2007KenyaDEATH PENALTY
APPEAL COURT UPHOLDS RAPIST’S DEATH SENTENCE
the Court of Appeal, in Kenya, upheld the death sentence imposed by the Nyeri High Court on a man who raped a 7-year-old minor, causing her death.
- FEBRUARY 1, 2007KenyaDEATH PENALTY
MAN, 23, TO HANG FOR KILLING HIS LOVER
aged only 23, John Ndunda Mwanika is to hang for killing his boss and burying her in a kiosk after being caught in a love triangle.
- JANUARY 1, 2007KenyaDEATH PENALTY
Murder, treason and armed robbery are capital crimes.
Murder, treason and armed robbery are capital crimes.
- DECEMBER 18, 2006KenyaDEATH PENALTY
KENYA. DEATH SENTENCE WAS TOO HARSH, SAYS NGUGI
novelist Ngugi wa Thiong'o said the death sentence passed by a Kenyan court on the three guards who attacked him and his wife was too harsh.
- DECEMBER 13, 2006KenyaDEATH PENALTY
KENYA. THREE SECURITY GUARDS SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR VIOLENT ROBBERY
security guards Richard Maeta, Elias Shikuku Wanjala and Peter Mulati Wafula were sentenced to death for violently robbing novelist Ngugi wa Thiong’o and his wife. John Kiragu Chege, a nephew of the writer, was acquitted for lack of evidence.
- SEPTEMBER 18, 2006KenyaDEATH PENALTY
KENYA. POLICE UNIT TOPS LIST OF HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSERS WITH EXTRAJUDICIAL EXECUTIONS
the police remain the most notorious abusers of human rights in Kenya, the latest human rights accountability report said.
- AUGUST 26, 2006KenyaDEATH PENALTY
KENYA. DEATH ROW INMATES ON STRIKE
about 200 death row convicts went on a hunger strike at Kenya’s Kamiti Maximum Prison, Kenya.
- AUGUST 9, 2006KenyaDEATH PENALTY
KENYA. FARMER TO DIE FOR BRITON'S DEATH
James Karuga Kamau, a 45 year old farmer, was sentenced to death after being convicted of murdering a teacher in Nairobi and dumping her body in a river.
- AUGUST 8, 2006KenyaDEATH PENALTY
"When we speak to them (death row prisoners)...
"When we speak to them (death row prisoners)...
- MAY 12, 2006KenyaDEATH PENALTY
KENYA. CROWD DEMANDS DEATH FOR BRITISH ARISTOCRAT OVER KILLING
hundreds of Kenyan protesters called for the death penalty against a British aristocrat accused of killing a suspected poacher, a year after he was involved in an earlier fatal shooting.
- JANUARY 1, 2006KenyaDEATH PENALTY
Murder, treason and armed robbery are capital crimes.
Murder, treason and armed robbery are capital crimes.
- DECEMBER 6, 2005KenyaDEATH PENALTY
KENYA. CONDEMNED PRISONER APPEALS FOR ABOLITION OF DEATH PENALTY
Peter Kamau Ndung'u, a prisoner condemned to death, appealed to the Kenyan government to abolish the death penalty.
- OCTOBER 24, 2005KenyaDEATH PENALTY
Murder, treason and armed robbery are capital crimes.
Murder, treason and armed robbery are capital crimes.
- SEPTEMBER 28, 2005KenyaDEATH PENALTY
KENYA. TWO MEN SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR ROBBERY AND MURDER
a Nairobi court sentenced Godown Onyango and George Mungai to death by hanging for violently robbing a military officer and killing him.
- AUGUST 16, 2005KenyaDEATH PENALTY
KENYA. FRESH CALLS TO ABOLISH THE DEATH PENALTY
Amnesty International rekindled calls for the abolition of the death penalty in Kenya.
- JULY 1, 2005KenyaDEATH PENALTY
KENYA. COURT FREES SEVEN DEATH ROW CONVICTS
seven death row convicts were released by the High Court for lack of evidence
- JUNE 6, 2005KenyaDEATH PENALTY
KENYA. GOVERNMENT PLANS COMMUTING DEATH PENALTIES TO LIFE, MINISTER
the Kenyan government planned to commute death sentences to life in prison, Kiraitu Murungi, the country's justice and constitutional affairs minister, announced.
- MAY 8, 2005KenyaDEATH PENALTY
KENYA. MUGGERS ELIGIBLE FOR DEATH PENALTY
it was reported that muggers in Kenya would be charged with robbery with violence, a crime that carried a mandatory death sentence.
- APRIL 27, 2005KenyaDEATH PENALTY
KENYA. MPS BACK TOUGH NEW PENALTIES FOR RAPISTS
rapists should be castrated, stoned to death or face the firing squad, MPs were told.
- APRIL 25, 2005KenyaDEATH PENALTY
KENYA. GOVERNMENT FREES UGANDANS ON DEATH ROW
the Kenyan government released four Ugandans who had been on death row for 10 years in Kenya on allegations they were rebels.
- APRIL 20, 2005KenyaDEATH PENALTY
Kenya abstained from the resolution on the death penalty at the 61st UN Commission on Human Rights.
Kenya abstained from the resolution on the death penalty at the 61st UN Commission on Human Rights.
- MARCH 1, 2005KenyaDEATH PENALTY
KENYA. MAN WHO KILLED HIV POSITIVE GRANDSON SENTENCED TO DEATH
Joseph Wambirwa Mwathi, 70, was sentenced to death in Kenya for killing his grandson on suspicion that the child was HIV positive.