By Brian Itava
Celebrated beauty pageant winner, at Lang’ata Women’s prison, Ruth Kamande, has been sentenced to death by the high court judge Lady Justice Jessie Lesiit.
Giving her judgement on Thursday, Justice Lessit said that the prosecution had enough evidence and the court could not extenuate its judgement.
According to the Judge, after adhering to the outstanding guidelines in giving the judgement, the court examined factors such as remorsefulness of the offender, plea taken, age, gender-based violence, and the possibility of reform and social adaptation and others that the court considers relevant.
“We wish to make it very clear, that these guidelines in no way replace judicial discretion, they are advisory and not mandatory. They are geared toward promoting consistency and transparency in sentencing. They are also aimed at promoting public understanding of the sentencing process,” said the Lady Justice.
Justice Lessit, ruled out that the crime committed by Miss Kamande was a sort of a gender-based violence case and thus ought to be met by befitting judgement.
“It was a violence against the diseased person by the virtue that he was a boyfriend to the accused just because of a perceived frustration the accused had in the relationship,” said the judge.
Miss Kamande was in May, convicted of murdering her 25-year-old boyfriend in 2015, after learning of texts messages on Farid Mohamed’s phone. Besides, the beauty queen learned of an AIDS Control Program in her boyfriend’s room that showed he was infected by HIV Virus.
Things went south after Mohamed ignored Kamande when she demanded for an explanation.