Pete Ouko, a Kenyan and a leading campaigner against capital punishment, decries its continued application in many jurisdictions.
How did you find yourself in prison and on death row?
In 1998 my wife was found murdered in front of a police station. I got word and I went to the police station to be told what had happened and I got locked up; my in-laws said I should be locked up. I was in the police station for 30 days, the law did not allow for that. I was not taken to court; because of course there was no evidence (to use) to take me to court. After 30 days I wrote a letter to the Attorney-General and to the law enforcement officers that the law says I should be in court within 14 days if at all there’s anything against me, but I’ve been here for 31 days and there’s nothing, so, I want to be taken to court to be released. So, they took me to court. I went to court, there was still nothing, and so I was taken to a remand home for about three weeks, still there was nothing. The judge (then) said I had to be taken back to police custody. So I went back to the police station and I had to stay there for another one month. So basically I spent sixty days at the police station.
Anyway I did my case in 1999 all the way to 2001 when I got convicted; the judge who convicted me just passed on the other day. But before then he had been sacked. He was the first to be sacked for corruption in Kenya. There was a radical surgery in the judiciary in 2003 by President Mwai Kibaki. The radical surgery led to the sacking and resignation of all the corrupt judges who were on board. My presiding judge lost his job at that point. But I went on appeal, I had my appeal completion, but when I came to judgment, I was told the judgment could not be read. I was (eventually) sentenced to death. I joined the death row in 2001. Basically I was on death row for eight years, between 2001 and 2009, but in 2009 was commuted to life. So from 2009 to 2016 when I left I was serving life imprisonment.
When your sentence was commuted to life imprisonment was it after an appeal?
No, the president just used his prerogative and commuted all death sentences. In 2003, President Kibabki commuted many death sentences of those who had been there for long to life imprisonment. Then in 2009 he again commuted the others. In the first instance in 2003 I think he commuted 4000 and in 2009 he commuted 3000.
After your sentencing what happened?
After the sentencing I then wrote a letter to the president, I told him even though I don’t agree with the decision of the court, as a law abiding person I respect it, but I need to be home because my children were going to graduate. The letter was up scaled and it reached him. So, in October 2016 I left the prison.
And up till now nobody knows who killed your wife?
I don’t want to go into that because we have the matter in court and it is sub judice.
From your experience, is there any hope for the abolition of the death penalty in Africa?
I don’t think the death penalty is an African concept. I think the death penalty was imposed on Africa by people who had already abolished it in their own countries. The African way of solving conflicts and some of the most heinous crimes was sitting under a tree and restitution was made. You look through all the African cultures they didn’t have the death penalty. In fact some of those who committed the most grievous crimes would be ostracised and told never to come to that community again.
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