Prison beauty queen stabbed her boyfriend 22 times

Ruth Kamande at the Milimani Law Courts in Nairobi. She was yesterday found guilty of the murder of Farid Mohammed. [Fidelis Kabunyi, Standard]

A prison beauty queen has been found guilty of murder.

Ruth Kamande, who was crowned Langata Women Prison beauty pageant winner in 2016, was convicted of killing her 24-year-old boyfriend Farid Mohammed.

The High Court yesterday found Ms Kamande guilty of the murder committed on September 20, 2015. The two had been in a relationship for more than a year. 

Judge Jessie Lesiit agreed with the prosecution that she had an ill motive.

Lady Justice Lesiit ruled that the 22 stabs on Mr Mohammed were not for self-defence as she had claimed, but were actuated by malice.

"It is clear from the prosecution evidence that the stabs were not done at a go, they were done in intervals,” the judge said.

The stunning woman pensively sat in the courtroom, her hands clasped.

She looked forlorn and tearful as the judge's words filled the courtroom. And as the last three paragraphs were read out, her eyes betrayed her disappointment.

She had put up a spirited fight for her freedom.

The 24-year-old told the judge that her boyfriend had raped her knowing that he was HIV positive, and that he had attempted to kill her.

According to the beauty queen, she had at the time found Mohammed with a yellow card from the Aids control programme showing that he was getting treatment.

The court heard that the night before the killing, Mohammed had forced her to have sex with him without protection.

After confronting him, she testified, Mohammed attempted to kill her and she stabbed him in the ensuing scuffle. “Mohammed told me that he would rather kill me and himself than have his status exposed because I realised he was HIV positive. I stabbed him severally using a kitchen knife, which fell on my chest from his hands after I overpowered him after putting my two thumbs in his eyes to save my life,” she claimed.

“Your honour, it pained me to know that the person who l loved and trusted so much was out to ruin my life by infecting me with HIV.”

But a medical report produced in court proved that she had not been raped.

Lesiit ruled that the rape allegation was an afterthought.

The accused in her argument also admitted that she had a fight with Mohammed over two love letters she found in his bedside locker.

Kamande told the court that after the incident she tried to save him but in vain.

Probation report

She was arraigned in court on September 24, 2016.

In the case, the State claimed that she stabbed Farid and then turned the knife on herself.

Her landlord Ndwiga Gatumo, who was called as a witness, said Wanjiru had visited Mohammed in Nairobi's Buruburu Phase 3 when the incident happened.

She will be sentenced on July 11 after a probation report, which will detail the wishes of Mohammed's family, the community and the prison, is filed in court.

Her plea on why the court should give her a lenient sentence will also factor in the final verdict.