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.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.
Her lawyer Joyner Okonjo said Ruth was now a devout Muslim and had been attending a course in theology for the past one year. According to Okonjo, her client engaged in various activities at the Lang’ata Women Prison, which led to her crowning as Miss Lang’ata beauty in 2016.
A title that the lawyer says does not come on a silver platter and key factors such as discipline, cooperation with the authorities and commitment to reform were considered.
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.
However even as news on the sentencing continue to spread across the country, the question does Kenya have a hangman to take charge of such criminals?
If not, why is she being sentenced to death if there will be nobody to do the job?
The man who was Kenya’s last and longest serving hangman at Kamiti Maximum Security Prison died in 2009.
