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KENYA - A former prison beauty queen found guilty of killing her boyfriend has been sentenced to death at Milimani Law Courts.
High Court judge Jessie Lesiit on Thursday noted that Ruth Kamande deliberately stabbed her boyfriend 25 times with the intention of causing pain, leading to his death. “I want young people to know that it is not cool to kill your boyfriend or girlfriend instead it is cool to walk away from a relationship when it breaks down,” said Judge Lesiit.
The 2016 Miss Lang’ata Prison, had pleaded with the court to spare her life, saying she had reformed and regretted killing her boyfriend. Kamande has been in custody since 2015 was found guilty of killing her 22-year-old boyfriend, Farid Mohammed. According to submissions made in court, Kamande stabbed Mohammed over twenty times following a domestic dispute sparked by a revelation that he had been taking HIV suppressing drugs without her knowledge. Kamande had in her defense stated that her boyfriend had raped her, knowing well that he was HIV-positive, and that he had attempted to kill her. According to the beauty queen, the argument got out of hand, when she discovered written letters from two other women. Following Kenya’s High Court sentencing of Ruth Kamande to death for killing her boyfriend, Amnesty International Kenya’s Executive Director, Irungu Houghton, said: “We are concerned that Kenya continues to use this cruel, inhumane and outdated mode of punishment. This sentence is a blow to Kenya’s progressive record in commuting death sentences to terms of imprisonment.
“There isn’t any credible evidence that the death penalty deters crime any better than other lawful punishments. This death sentence must be commuted immediately and Ruth Kamande rehabilitated.” Kenya has made good strides against the use of the death penalty. It has not carried out an execution in 30 years, and two presidents have commuted the death sentences of entire death row populations in the last 10 years.
(The Standard)