Editor's Review

Ruth Kamande in September 2015 stabbed 25 times at their residence in Buruburu Estate, Nairobi.

The Supreme Court has dismissed Ruth Kamande’s appeal seeking to overturn her conviction for killing her boyfriend, Farid Mohamed Halim. 

Kamande was found guilty in 2018 for stabbing her boyfriend 25 times at their residence in Buruburu Estate, Nairobi, in September 2015. 

The high court ruled that Kamande, a former Miss Lang’ata Women’s Prison, deliberately and intermittently killed her lover and that her action was calculated to inflict pain and cause death.

The court concluded that the appellant’s actions were driven by malice and sentenced her to death.

Dissatisfied with the ruling, Kamande moved to the Court of Appeal to challenge the decision on the grounds of battered woman syndrome, but the petition was also dismissed.

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Photocollage of Ruth Kamande.

She then moved to the Supreme Court to again challenge the decision, but the apex court ruled that battered woman syndrome is not a standalone legal defence in Kenya.

According to the Supreme Court, the battered woman syndrome can be raised in aid or as an extension of one of the existing legal stand-alone defences: self-defense, provocation or temporary insanity.

The Supreme Court judges also ruled that the issue of battered woman syndrome was only introduced during the Court of Appeal and not when the case was on trial.

“The Court held that the battered woman syndrome has not attained the status of a stand-alone defence and it has to be raised in aid or as an extension of one of the existing legal stand-alone defences: self-defense, provocation or temporary insanity.

"However, the courts cannot singularly elevate the battered woman syndrome to a stand-alone defence of itself, as to do so would amount to usurpation of legislative mandate bestowed upon Parliament under our Constitutional architecture,” the court ruled.

Kamande will continue serving life imprisonment after President William Ruto commuted her death sentence to life imprisonment in July 2023 as part of broader reforms aimed at addressing issues within the penal system.

In 2024, Kamande graduated with a law degree at Kamiti Maximum Prison.