Court of appeal scraps off Life imprisonment.
Court of appeal scraps off Life imprisonment; According to justice Justices Pauline Nyamweya, Jessie Lesiit and George Odunga, who were delivering a verdict on the case of Julius Kitsao Manyeso versus the Republic (2023), a life sentence is unfair.
The cited that putting someone behind bars, for the rest of their lives goes against the main aim of imprisonment which is rehabilitation.
They argued that life imprisonment blocks the objective which is to deter, rehabilitate, denounce, or retribute for the offence committed.
The justices ruled,”We are equally guided by this holding by the Supreme Court of Kenya, and in the instant appeal, we are of the view that having found the sentence of life imprisonment to be unconstitutional, we have the discretion to interfere with the said sentence.”
“For all practical purposes, in terms of execution of the sentences, life sentence, and death sentence seem to mean the same thing in this country,” the bench argued.
Kitsao had been given a life sentence, after a magistrate in Kisii found him guilty for allegedly defiling a minor, and his efforts to seek legal redress at the High Court were futile.
Court of appeal therefore, granted him 40 years of imprisonment.
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