Standup9ja: Former Beauty Queen Ruth Kamande Sentenced to Jail for Stabbing her Boyfriend 22 times (Photos)

Former Lang’ata Women’s Prison beauty queen Ruth Kamande has been sentenced to death for killing her boyfriend, Farid Mohammed in 2015.

Justice Jessie Lesiit committed the 2016 beauty queen to death despite the penalty having been lifted by a superior court saying her court was free to exercise judicial discretion.
She noted that despite the Supreme Court finding the death penalty unconstitutional in a decision it rendered in December last year, the punishment was still enshrined in statutes. 

 

“In my view, the discretion to pass a sentence other than death in capital offences should only be exercised in deserving cases. I do not find this a deserving case and I think passing any other sentence than the one prescribed would turn the accused into a hero,” the judge said during Kamande’s sentencing on Thursday.

“I want young people to know that it is not cool to kill your boyfriend or girlfriend even where you feel disappointed or frustrated – don’t do it. Instead, it is cool to walk away and thereafter to forgive,” Justice Lesiit outlined.

She also said Kamande showed no remorse for her actions in the course of the trial despite having stabbed her boyfriend repeatedly for up to twenty-five times.

Justice Lesiit also declined a request by Kamande’s lawyers for leniency on the basis that the accused person had successfully applied to join the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) for further studies saying the ex-beauty queen was free to enlist for courses within the prisons system.

Speaking to reporters following the sentencing, the victim’s aunt, Emmah Wanjiku said the family was glad justice had finally been served.

“Anybody who thinks there’s no justice, there’s justice for victims and that’s what we were hoping for today. We’re glad that this day came and his grandparents, his sister was actually in court today when this verdict was given,” a tear-stained Wanjiku said.

Kenya does not implement the death sentence and Kamande will now serve a life sentence.