Advertisement

Kenyan prison beauty queen gets death penalty for boyfriend's murder

Thursday July 19 2018
kamande

Ruth Wanjiku Kamande in court on July 19,2017. She was sentenced to death for the murder of her boyfriend. PHOTO | PAUL WAWERU | NATION MEDIA GROUP

A former Kenyan prison beauty pageant champion has been sentenced to death for killing her boyfriend.

In a court ruling on Thursday, Justice Jessie Lesiit said Ruth Wanjiku Kamande deliberately stabbed Farid Mohammed 25 times.

Justice Lesiit said that "young people should know it is not cool to kill your boyfriend, it is better to walk away".

Kamande, 24, murdered her boyfriend using a kitchen knife in September 2015.

A devout Muslim

In mitigation last week, Kamande told the court she had reformed since she was remanded two years and nine months ago, and that she was remorseful.

Advertisement

Her lawyer Joyner Okonjo said Ruth was now a devout Muslim and had been attending a course in theology for the past one year.

Ms Okonjo added that her client engaged in various activities at the Lang’ata Women Prison, which led to her crowning as Miss Lang’ata beauty in 2016.

The lawyer argued that for one to get such a title, factors such as discipline, cooperation with the authorities and commitment to reform were considered.

Old love letters

She also said that Ruth had been enrolled for a university course, but her education was discontinued.

During sentencing, Justice Lesiit dismissed claims that she acted in self defence.

She said the stab wounds were not consistent with her allegations that her former boyfriend had pinned her down as they fought, observing that the wounds were inflicted at intervals and not by a person in a lying position.

The night before the incident, the court heard that she found his old love letters and questioned Farid why he was still holding onto them.

He allegedly ignored her and went to sleep only for her to rekindle the conversation the following morning.

Advertisement