Every story written about Ruth Kamande says the same thing: that she has been convicted of murder and has been crowned a beauty queen.
But what most people do not know is that Kamande is also a trained auxiliary paralegal and has used these skills to help her fellow inmates navigate the complex judicial system that often throws them into the deep end of court proceedings without a lawyer to guide them.
As a result, many are imprisoned for cases that they could easily win had they had the appropriate legal representation.
Kamande is a beneficiary of a programme run by the African Prisons Project, a charity organisation active in Kenya and Uganda, which “brings dignity and hope to prison communities in Africa” through transferring of useful skills to prisoners and prison wardens.
“I am in a good position to draft cross-examination questions, defences, submissions and even mitigations,” Kamande writes in a testimonial on the APP website. And using these skills, she has helped some inmates secure their freedom.
Mr John Muthuri, the legal aid manager at APP who trained Kamande as a paralegal, has only good things to say about her.
“Ruth is a good paralegal and we are happy with her work. She has been able to build the confidence of her peers, assisting them to argue their cases successfully for bail and bond,” he told the Nation.
The APP programme currently operates in eight prisons in Kenya, and so successful has been its paralegal programme that some prisoners who have gone through it have represented themselves in court and successfully overturned previous convictions.
According to APP, although the law provides the right to a lawyer, 80 per cent of accused people who go through the court system in Kenya do so without any legal representation.
This inadvertently leads to a high rate of imprisonment.
An aunt of the man whose death earned Mrs Kamande a death sentence on Thursday has also opened the lid on the turbulent relationship the two had before he died in 2015.
Emma Wanjiku says her nephew Farid Mohamed, who died aged 24 after being stabbed 25 times by Ruth, was in an on-and-off relationship with his would-be killer.
Speaking moments after High Court judge Jessie Lessit sent Ruth to the gallows for her macabre murder, Ms Wanjiku also described the relationship between the two as one-sided.
“It was an on and off relationship, and as the judge mentioned, the defendant was very controlling, aggressive, never-let-go, jealous,” she said. “She was just too controlling and kept following him.”
Expressing happiness for the judge’s verdict that Ruth had to hang for her crime, Ms Wanjiku also revisited details of the knife used to kill Mr Mohamed.
“She brought the weapon probably a day or two before,” she said. The aunt added: “She did what she wanted to do — just destroy him, even when they were asking her at the window, ‘stop!’ she did not stop. And even if she stopped, she continued again, as the judge mentioned.”
From Ms Wanjiku’s interview, it emerged that the Mr Mohamed had been raised by his extended family — with his grandfather being his main benefactor.
“His grandfather was looking forward to him marrying some day, having children. I, his aunt, was hoping he would come and visit us in Canada where we live. He never got a chance,” said Ms Wanjiku.
“He had done schooling even with great effort. And he wanted a good life for himself. He was just establishing himself. As a matter of fact, when he moved to his place, it was brand,” she added.
The judge said Ruth did not have remorse while butchering Mr Mohamed.
“She stabbed the deceased 25 times, and not in quick succession but rather spaced out as if savouring it in pleasure,” she said.