Ruth Kamande, a former beauty queen incarcerated on death row for the 2015 murder of her boyfriend, has been given permission to pursue an appeal at the Supreme Court. This decision comes after her initial appeal at the Court of Appeal was unsuccessful. Kamande, who won the Miss Lang’ata Women Prison beauty pageant, received this ruling on October 6.
In Kenya, the Court of Appeal is the final avenue for murder convicts to seek redress. However, a third appeal on matters of law can only be made to the Supreme Court with the approval of the appellate court.
The case involves Kamande fatally stabbing her boyfriend, Farid Mohamed Halim, 25 times in various parts of his body, leading to his death within a few minutes. They were residing together in Buru Buru at the time of the incident, which was brought to the attention of neighbors by the victim’s cries for help. Responding witnesses found Halim in great pain and alerted the police, who discovered that he had succumbed to multiple injuries and blood loss due to penetrating force trauma.
Kamande had previously appealed her conviction and sentence without success in November 2020. This time, her main ground for appeal is the claim of suffering from battered women syndrome. Her lawyer, Githu Muigai, argues that individuals who assert self-defense in cases of domestic violence should be granted some leniency.
While Muigai’s earlier attempt to argue self-defense in the initial appeal was unsuccessful, this time he contends that the appeal addresses matters of general public importance. Specifically, it questions the doctrine of battered women syndrome and the standards and burden of proof when a defendant pleads self-defense. It is argued that these issues extend beyond the circumstances of this particular case and have a significant impact on advancing the rights of domestic violence victims under the provisions of the Protection against Domestic Violence Act.
Kamande also maintains that her claim of self-defense was not effectively challenged by the prosecution during the trial, and the court did not adequately consider it, despite it being the foundation of her defense.
The prosecution did not oppose the application, acknowledging its merit in escalating the case to the Supreme Court for a comprehensive examination of the raised issues in the public interest.
Kamande’s appeal aims to establish that when a self-defense claim is supported by circumstantial evidence, the accused should benefit from the law, resulting in a reduced charge to manslaughter.
The court, concurring with the application, believes that the issues raised may be novel legal matters deserving the Supreme Court’s attention. In particular, the concept of battered women syndrome has not been widely explored in the country, making the court’s involvement in this uncharted territory a matter of public interest.
In their official statement, the three-judge bench declared, “The upshot is that the notice of motion dated February 17, 2021, is merited and is hereby allowed.”
