Nairobi: A Kenyan nurse was sentenced to death by hanging on Thursday after being found guilty of carrying out an abortion on a young woman that led to her death.
Justice Nicholas Ombija handed down the death sentence to 41-year-old Jackson Namunya Tali for committing the crime on July 27, 2009. At the time, he worked as a medical officer at a hospital in Gachie, some 15 kilometres (9 miles) north of the capital Nairobi.
According to evidence presented in court, Christine Atieno visited the clinic where Tali worked with the express intention of having her pregnancy terminated, which is illegal in Kenya.
Tali said he had attended to the deceased woman but denied having carried out the abortion, saying she had undergone the procedure eight days before she visited him for consultation.
Biy Judge Ombija said in his ruling that "only he (Tali) could explain how the deceased, who visited his clinic while well and not bleeding, happened to over-bleed, culminating in her demise."
Kenya has not carried out executions since 1987, although capital punishment is not formally abolished. In 2009, former president Mwai Kibaki commuted sentences of more than 4,000 prisoners on death row to life imprisonment.
