Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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24. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he is aware of the case of a person (details supplied) who has been sentenced to death by Kenyan authorities; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45415/15]

Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Ireland has a longstanding policy of strong opposition to the death penalty and we are actively engaged in international efforts, including through the EU, to secure its universal abolition.

Along with our EU partners, Ireland actively supports UN resolutions on the death penalty at the Human Rights Council and the UN General Assembly. We have also used our current term of membership of the UN Human Rights Council to raise our concerns in relation to developments regarding the death penalty. We have consistently called for a halt to executions during our interventions at the working sessions of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), a peer review mechanism on the human rights records of UN Member States.

The death penalty remains on the statute books in Kenya and continues to be handed down as a sentence, although it has not been carried out since 1987.

I am aware of the specific case referred to. I understand that the person involved was arrested in August 2001 for the murder of a mother and her son in Kenya. He was convicted and sentenced to death. However, he has always maintained his innocence.

Ireland has called for Kenya to abolish the death penalty. The EU Delegation in Nairobi also regularly raises the issue, on behalf of all EU Member States, in its engagement with the Kenyan authorities.