The Court of Appeal in Nairobi has upheld the death sentence handed to Langata Women’s Prison beauty queen Ruth Kamande. 

The Miss Langata Women’s Prison beauty pageant winner of 2016 was convicted of stabbing her boyfriend 22 times at Buruburu estate in September 2015.  

High Court judge Jessie Lessit sentenced Kamande to death in 2017, saying the office of Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) had proven beyond reasonable doubt that she committed the offence.

Kamande then filed an appeal against the sentence that has now been confirmed by the Appellate Court.

The ODPP, in a tweet on Friday, hailed the decision confirmed by the Court of Appeal against the prison beauty queen saying justice had been served.

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Kamande was found guilty of stabbing Farid Mohammed 22 times in 2015 and, while delivering her ruling, Justice Lessit said she handed the maximum sentence to deter youth from engaging in such offences.

During trial, she had argued that things got out of hand after she discovered a hospital card suggesting that her late boyfriend was being treated for HIV.

She told the court that on confronting Mohammed about the discovery, he reportedly threatened her saying they would both rather die than have his HIV status made public.

It is during the argument, she said, that things escalated and she found letters written by two other women and that she stabbed him with a kitchen knife after it fell on her during their fight.