than the normal 24-hour period; g) Confessions made by a person under police detention without the presence of a lawyer should not be admissible against the person; Suspects were often convicted following the use of confessions extracted under torture with little or no judicial recourse, despite both constitutional and legal prohibitions on the use of torture and the nonadmissibility of evidence obtained under torture; Section 25A of the Evidence Act was amended in 2003 to the effect that confessions were only admissible if made before a court. Non-governmental sources: Section 25A of the Evidence Act was amended in 2007, to provide for the sharing of the power between the court and the police in obtaining confessions. Rules concerning safeguards are to be made by the Attorney General who has not yet acted in that regard. h) Legal aid should be available to anyone held in police custody or on remand who has not the means to secure legal assistance, with lawyers being given immediate access to their clients. The Law Society should consider establishing an appropriate scheme in cooperation with the Government; The SR found that legal aid was virtually unavailable for the overwhelming majority of suspects held by the police, because most suspects could not afford legal assistance and only those charged with capital offences were entitled to legal aid. At the time of the SR's visit, Kenyan Bar Association did not provide legal aid services. A National Legal Aid Scheme was pending before Parliament. Non-governmental sources: Due to the extremely high costs of legal aid, it remains unavailable to the majority of the population. A/HRC/13/39/Add.6 101 The right of lawyers to have immediate and unhindered access to detainees was not clearly provided for in the law, but could be partly based on Chapter V of the Constitution. In practice however, lawyers were

Select target paragraph3

Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents