Convicted murderer Joseph Kuria Irungu alias Jowie has petitioned the High Court challenging the constitutionality of the death penalty imposed on him terming it cruel and inhumane.
Jowie is petitioning the Milimani High Court to declare Kenya’s laws prescribing the death penalty as unconstitutional.
He argues that these laws, permitting or mandating death sentences, violate constitutional rights, particularly Article 26(1), which protects the right to life.
Jowie, a former private security provider, received a death sentence for the murder of Nairobi businesswoman Monica Kimani on March 13 this year. He contends that the imposed jail term violates his fundamental rights and considers the death penalty as a form of punishment that is degrading.
“We seek a declaration that the Petitioner’s sentencing to death on March 13, 2024, was in contravention of the Jowie’s non-derogable right to freedom from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment contrary to Article 25 of the Constitution,” Jowie’s lawyer Andrew Muge states.
Jowie also wants the court to declare that section 379 (4) of the criminal procedure code is unconstitutional as it denies persons sentenced to death the right to bail pending appeal.
According to Jowie, the clause is unconstitutional and discriminatory considering people jailed for other crimes have the right to apply for bail.
” Section 379(4) of the Criminal Procedure Code is discriminatory and infringes on the right to human dignity of a person sentenced to death and thus contrary to Articles 27 and 28 of the Constitution,” Muge says.
Further, Jowie seeks monetary compensation arguing that his rights were infringed after he was denied bail as well as being sentenced to death denying him the right to life.
“An award of compensation under Article 23(3)(e) to the Petitioner for infringement of his rights under Articles 27, 28, 29, 48 and 50 of the Constitution of Kenya,” the petition reads in part.
In his petition, he wants the Government of Kenya through the Office of the Attorney General to bear the cost of the petition.
In 2017, the Supreme Court declared the mandatory death sentence unconstitutional but did not outlaw it.
The ruling gave judges’ discretion to decide whether to hand down the death sentence or life imprisonment.
Jowie, 33, was found guilty of the murder of Kimani, who was brutally killed in her Lamuria Gardens apartment in Nairobi on the night of September 19, 2018.
While convicting Jowie, Justice Grace Nzioka ruled that the horrific murder of Monica Kimani was “intentional.”
“The evidence does not lead to the conclusion that the death was accidental. It was planned, intended and it was executed. In a murder, one person’s life ends but countless lives are impacted,” ruled Nzioka.
The Judge noted that Jowie’s personality is one that would not allow the court to give him a non-custodial sentence as during the trial he blocked Monica’s brother George Kimani on the road and he was also involved in another criminal offence of assault too.
Jowie has also filed a notice of appeal at the Court of Appeal over his conviction and sentencing.
