Ruth Kamande, a murder convict who is serving a life sentence at the Lang’ata Women’s Prison has graduated with a law degree from the University of London.
Kamande graduated during a ceremony that was held for various convicts at the Kamiti Maximum Prison on Tuesday, November 26, 2024.
“We are here to celebrate this new chapter with a new story which all of you have participated in rewriting. But we are not only here to celebrate graduands from the University of London but graduands who have successfully studied law behind bars. Graduands who are well transformed, rehabilitated and reformed,” said Kamande during the graduation event.
The event was organized by Justice Defenders which is a non-governmental organization that trains paralegals and lawyers within defenceless communities to provide legal services for themselves and others in their communities.
Kamande was initially sentenced to death for stabbing to death her boyfriend Farid Mohammed in 2015. She was convicted in 2018 after pleading guilty to charges of stabbing her boyfriend 25 times in Buru Buru, Nairobi.
She appealed the sentence at the Court of Appeal which upheld the verdict of the High Court in a ruling that was made in November 2020.
The Court of Appeal ruled that the nature of injuries suffered by the late Farid and admittedly caused by Kamande were a clear indication that she intended to kill him.
“Having carefully examined the evidence on record, we find Kamande violently, intentionally and unlawfully killed the deceased inescapable,” the Court of Appeal ruled.
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Although Ruth Kamande was initially sentenced to death, her sentence was later converted to life in prison.
In 2016, she gained fame in the country after bagging the Miss Lang’ata Crown at the prison where she serves.
In 2023, the Court of Appeal allowed Kamande to lodge a second appeal at the Supreme Court of Kenya.
