The Miss Lang’ata prison 2016 beauty pageant queen Ruth Kamande inflicted injuries on herself to cover up the attack on her boyfriend that left him lifeless at his house in Buruburu, Nairobi, court was told.
Kamande who is charged with the murder of her boyfriend Farid Mohammed on September 20th 2015 by stabbing him 22 times is believed to have turned the kitchen knife on herself slightly injuring her abdomen before the police arrived.
Hezron Otieno, a police officer who handled the case told the presiding judge Justice Jessie Lessit that according to him, the injuries on Kamande were a cover up.
The officer confirmed that when he saw Kamande shortly after she had killed her boyfriend whose body was found leaning on the edge of his bed, she had “some slight injuries” and was taken to Metropolitan Hospital before being transferred to Kenyatta National Hospital for treatment.
“She claimed she had been stabbed by the deceased but according to me, the deceased may not have attacked her,” the officer testified.
The officer said it was Kamande who they saw holding the blood stained knife and refused to open the door until the police got there
“She refused to open the door when the landlord told her to do so and only opened later when police ordered her to surrender,” Otieno said.
The America girlfriend
The trial court heard that among the exhibits retrieved at the murder scene was a card sent to the deceased from his other girlfriend in the US, a damaged mobile phone handset and the murder weapon.
Otieno said that the US girlfriend was well known to one of the deceased’s sisters who confirmed to him that the card had been sent from her to her brother.
The landlord’s testimony
The landlord who heard the initial commotion on the fateful day told the trial court how he heard arrived at the scene after hearing the screams.
Ndwiga Gatumo said it was around 8.45 a.m as he was preparing to go to church when he heard a male voice crying out for help is Swahili saying “nisaidie nasaidie amenidunga”( Help! Help! She has stabbed me).
” I rushed out of my room and proceeded to where the man was screaming for help and peeped through the window and also recognized the voice as that of my tenant” said Gatumo.
” I was able to see a man shouting and the girl also standing in front of him holding a knife,” the witness said.
Hit her breasts in self defense
The landlord told the court that the deceased told him to take the keys inside the house and open for him but the door was locked.
I told Farid to try and defend himself as a man and even hit her breasts but he did not do so.
“I managed to break the window but could not reach the key, I could still see the girl holding the knife from where I was,” the witness said.
Gatumo told the court that the deceased had blood stains all over his body.
Bloody all over
Another police officer who was at scene shortly after the stabbing said he found Farid already dead.
Joseph Otieno said when he arrived at the house after responding to a distress call he was confronted by a blood sight.
“The lady ( Kamande) had a lot of blood splattered all over her clothes, there was also fresh blood from the sitting room which we followed to the bedroom,” Otieno said.
He said he saw the body of the decease slumped against his bed.
“The lady also had some slight injuries on the abdomen…”the witness said.
He said he recovered a knife under the bed, believed to be the murder weapon, a damaged cellphone along the corridor, blood stained sheets and clothes.
High school love letters
In earlier testimonies the trial court was told that the accused was furious the day before because of old high school love letters she found in her late boyfriend’s possession.
Hearing continues on June 13 2017.
