After years along the corridors of justice, Joseph Irungu, alias Jowie was on Wednesday handed a death penalty which will essentially confine him in prison for the rest of his life.
However, in December 2017, the death penalty was undeclared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of Kenya.
This would mean that Kenya does not execute any convict who is sentenced to the death penalty.
A convict who is sentenced under the death penalty is expected to serve a life imprisonment term with little chance of release as opposed to other convicts who are likely to have their sentences reduced.
Convicts under other forms of imprisonment in Kenya may have their sentences reduced sometimes in half if they are pardoned for good behaviour.
Additionally, convicts serving a life sentence are not allowed to work in prison or engage in other activities such as educational activities that other prisoners engage in.
Further, death penalty convicts in prison are isolated from other prisoners and housed in different quarters.
In Kenya, offences that can lead to the death row punishment include: treason, taking an oath to commit an offence that would be punished by the death penalty (even if that offence is not committed), murder, certain sorts of robbery or even attempted robbery, and (for members of the military) aiding the enemy.
However, the death penalty continues to be contentious as most live by the code that no human is allowed to take another person's life.
Moreover, death row is considered costly for governments with research showing that it costs roughly Ksh240 to maintain a prisoner per day in Kenya.
Additionally, the penalty has been faulted for contributing to congestion in Kenyan prisons owing to the number of convicts incarcerated.
Kenya has not executed any prisoner on death row since 1987, with the last executions being those of people accused of treason in the 1982 attempted coup.
