President William Ruto has pardoned 5,061 inmates in a bid to decongest Kenya's prisons.
The decision published in a Kenya Gazette Notice dated July 21 indicates that the president has released 2,944 minor offenders who had sentences of six months or below.
Upon the recommendation of the Advisory Committee of the Power of Mercy, the head of state has also pardoned 2,117 long-term offenders who have less than six months left of their sentences.
The president further "commuted the death sentence imposed on every capital offender as at November 21, 2022, to a life sentence," the Gazette Notice further reads.
Former head of the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) Davy Koech was among 37 convicts freed. The High Court found Koech guilty of corruptly acquiring approximately $135,000 public funds and sentenced him to six years in jail in 2021.
