The Kenyan government said on Wednesday it planned to abolish the death penalty and replace punishment for the most heinous crimes with life imprisonment.

Offences punishable by death include robbery with violence, murder and treason.

Some 2,618 convicts are currently on death row in Kenya and the government said if the law was amended their sentences would be commuted to life imprisonment.

The government has forwarded its recommendation to change the law to a constitutional review conference. The body is made up of members of parliament, professional bodies and religious and civic leaders.

Wilfred Machage, assistant minister for home affairs, told parliament the last person to hang in Kenya was in 1987 and that since that time those sentenced to death have been in prisons waiting to hear their fate.

"The practice has been used worldwide in the past but latest trends show that it is an abuse of an individual's right to life and it is not part of the measures that can help a convict fit in society because they will be dead," Machage said.

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