KENYA TAKES OVER 200 PRISONERS OFF DEATH ROW

the 28 prisoners were released Tuesday because they had already served between 15 and 20 years and "were of good conduct," Home Affairs Minister Moody Awori told The Associated Press.
"This is a new government with new thinking," Awori said. "The government feels there is no reason and no justification to keep prisoners, particularly if they have reformed, in prison that long."
Kibaki´s government has also said it wants to see capital punishment abolished in the East African nation. The death penalty -- by hanging -- has not been carried out since 1987.
Kibaki led an alliance of opposition parties to an historic December 27 election victory that ended the 39-year rule of the Kenya African National Union party, which had governed Kenya since independence from Britain in 1963.
Justice Minister Kiraitu Murungi has described capital punishment as barbaric and said the government hoped it would be abolished when the country adopts a new constitution.
Kibaki has said he would like parliament to adopt the new constitution by the end of June.
Awori said he did not know how many prisoners there are on death row but the Kenya Human Rights Commission estimates there were 1,270 prisoners on death row in Kenya´s notoriously overcrowded maximum security prisons as of last September.
Anyone convicted of committing murder or "armed robbery with violence" can be sentenced to death in Kenya. This has meant that a judge could sentence a chicken thief to death if he used violence in committing the theft. There are no jury trials in Kenya.