Murder, treason and armed robbery are capital crimes.

Murder, treason and armed robbery are capital crimes. Courts in Kenya apply the death penalty to violent robberies with particular rigour. Judges, not juries, pass death sentences.
The election, on December 27, 2002, of the National Rainbow Coalition (Narc) brought to an end 39 years of Kenya African National Union (KANU) rule and a commitment to abolish the death penalty by the new government.
The Narc government, committed to the introduction of a new constitution, opted to include abolition in it. Consequently progress towards complete abolition has been hampered by the long and sometimes problematic constitutional review process. A referendum on the new constitution is scheduled for October 2005, after parliament has discussed and voted on the text.
On March 9, 2004, the National Constitutional Conference, decided to abolish the death penalty for treason and robbery with violence but apply it for murder and the rape of minors.
Justice and Constitutional Affairs Minister Kiraitu Murungi – who, in January 2003, had declared that the new government intended to abolish the death penalty - responded immediately stating government was determined not to hang anyone because the death penalty constituted an inhuman punishment. On March 10, 2004, he announced that President Kibaki had commuted all death sentences. According to government statistics, there were 2,618 death row inmates in Kenya up to October 2003. On February 25, 2003 President Mwai Kibaki had already commuted to life the death sentences of 195 prisoners, and released 28 others who had already served 15-20 years and had a good conduct record. The last hanging in Kenya took place in 1987, when the August 1, 1982, coup plotters Hezekiah Ochuka and Pancras Oteyo Okumu were executed following a court-martial.