The draft of the Power of Mercy Policy Amendment Bill, 2022, which will be presented to the 13th Parliament, has won support from Machakos County leaders.
The leaders were speaking at the Machakos Youth Centre at a stakeholder conference on the validation procedure for the draft Power of Mercy policy framework Amendment Bill, 2022.
The Power of Mercy taskforce was established on 25th September 2020 by the Attorney General through a gazette notice to review all the rules related with the exercise by the president under article 133 of the Constitution.
While addressing the stakeholders meeting, Stephen Gitau, the secretary to the nine-member team for the Power of Mercy Advisory Committee (POMAC) task force, stated that the power given on the advisory Committee will be developed in accordance with the policy framework.
“Largely what we are doing is reviewing the legislative framework of the Power of Mercy and recommend amendments to the existing legislation as well as to formulate a comprehensive policy to fully operationalize Article 133 of the constitution,” said Gitau.
He further stated that if the Bill is passed, it will aid in the decongestion of jails around the country.
“If someone has changed and has reformed, the task force has recommended the establishment of a rule board where some of these people who are in prison, some of them do not deserve to be in prison to complete their sentence at home,” he said.
The secretary also noted that the Bill will assist to reduce the amount of money spent to keep convicts in jail.
“It is estimated that to maintain one inmate in prison costs an estimated Sh. 270 per day, if they are 54,000 inmates, you can estimate what that amount is to the taxpayer, about Sh. 10 million to Sh.12 million to maintain a convicted inmate in prison,” Gitau said.
“If we can be able to contain some of these costs by ensuring that people who do not require minor or petty offences in prison, it has a bearing in terms of cost to the task payer,” he added.
The secretary alleged that the draft verification requires approval from at least 24 counties, stating that they have already completed 14 of them and intend to complete the validation process by September 30th and present it to parliament before the end of the year.
“The taskforce has identified around 26 counties, Machakos being the 14th county where we are subjecting both documents for validation and what we want you to know is that the general public and the stakeholders in Machakos are in agreement with the provision of the policy and the bill,” said Gitau.
“12 counties are remaining, after that we shall consolidate those views, revise the policy and bills accordingly and we expect by September 30 we should be through with those consultations,” he added.
Gitau further stated that the Advisory Committee will be tasked with advising and recommending qualified convicts for pardon.
Anyone who is a convicted prisoner and is not serving a non-custodial sentence or has a pending legal procedure is eligible for a pardon in such a circumstance, they may seek a pardon.
