The Knife, The Secret & The Sentence: The Ruth Kamande Tragedy

In the heart of Nairobi’s Buru Buru estate… life pulsed with the usual urban rhythm. Matatus belched exhaust into the morning air… hawkers peddled everything from roasted maize to secondhand clothes… and neighbors exchanged quiet nods in the narrow lanes that twisted through the maze of apartments. But behind one door… a tragedy was unfolding that would carve its way into Kenya’s collective memory.

Ruth Wanjiku Kamande was young and radiant… her beauty impossible to ignore. She carried herself with confidence… her sharp eyes hinting at an intelligence and ambition that set her apart. Farid Mohammed Halim was no less captivating… a man whose laughter could fill a room… whose easy charm had woven a spell around Ruth. They were the couple everyone noticed… the ones who seemed to have found love in a city where trust was currency and betrayal was never far behind.

On September 20, 2015, the morning air was crisp… the sun rose like a promise of ordinary life. But for Ruth and Farid… that morning was anything but ordinary. She was in the bedroom, folding clothes… when her hand slipped beneath the mattress and found a card she didn’t recognize. Her breath caught in her throat. It was from the AIDS Control Programme… with Farid’s name on it. A cold shiver ran down her spine… betrayal flooded her veins. She confronted him immediately… the apartment suddenly too small for the weight of her questions.

Their argument erupted like a storm. Ruth claimed that Farid lunged at her… that he said he’d rather kill her and himself than have his secret exposed. “Farid told me he would rather kill me and himself than have his status exposed…” she would tell the court later… her voice trembling with the memory. She said she fought back… her thumbs pressing into his eyes… the panic so strong she thought she might drown in it. In the chaos, she reached for the kitchen knife… felt its cold handle in her hand… and when the blade rose and fell… it was as though it moved on its own.

One… two… three… until there were 25 stab wounds. Farid’s blood pooled on the floor… the walls of their small flat turned into silent witnesses of a love story gone violently wrong.

Neighbors heard the cries… “Help! Help! She has stabbed me!”… and rushed to the locked door. Ndwiga Gatumo, their landlord, smashed a window and peered inside… saw Farid standing… blood soaking his clothes… Ruth standing before him… her hands red with what she had done. Gatumo shouted for him to fight back… told him to defend himself… but Farid was already too weak… his voice fading with every heartbeat.

When the police arrived… the door was still locked… the air thick with the smell of iron and fear. Officer Joseph Otieno would later say… “It was a horrific sight… blood everywhere… a young man’s life stolen.” Ruth was arrested… her face a blank canvas of shock… the kitchen knife still warm in her trembling hands.

The trial that followed turned Ruth Kamande into a household name. In the courtroom… her defense was simple: she claimed self-defense… that Farid had forced her hand… that she was just trying to survive. She spoke of the love letters she found in his bedside locker… from women named Scholar and Esther… of the night before the murder when Farid insisted on unprotected sex… of the morning she discovered his HIV status and felt her world shatter.

But the prosecution saw something else… a woman driven by jealousy… a lover turned killer. They spoke of the defensive wounds on Farid’s arms… of the 25 stab wounds that spoke not of self-defense… but of rage. Justice Jessie Lessit watched her carefully… weighing the words… the tears. In 2018, she found Ruth guilty of murder… the death sentence handed down in the heavy silence of the courtroom. “The brutality of the act,” she said… “cannot be overlooked.”

Yet even in prison… Ruth refused to be forgotten.

At Lang’ata Women’s Prison, she stunned the nation again… crowned Miss Lang’ata 2016… her beauty queen smile framed by the grey walls of her cell. Cameras flashed… the country was captivated… was this the face of a cold-blooded killer… or a young woman broken by betrayal?

Ruth turned her mind to study… seeking redemption in the words of the law. By 2024… she had earned a law degree through Justice Defenders… a new chapter for a woman many thought had already written her last. Her graduation at Kamiti Maximum Prison was more than a milestone… it was a testament to the will to survive even when the world had already judged you.

But her freedom was a dream that refused to come true. Ruth appealed… this time arguing Battered Woman Syndrome… that she had suffered in silence and acted in desperation. The Supreme Court listened in April 2025… but the judges saw no mention of abuse in her earlier testimony… no hint of sustained violence. Her final plea was denied… the life sentence confirmed.

Through it all… Ruth’s story became a mirror for Kenya’s soul. Was she a victim… or a killer? A woman pushed to the edge… or one who let jealousy guide her hand? The debates burned through the cafes and the homes… her name spoken with equal parts pity and scorn.

Today… Ruth Kamande lives behind the high walls of Lang’ata… her past never far behind. Her story is a tangle of passion and violence… of betrayal and consequence… a story of a life that began with love and ended in blood.

And this… was another chapter of

#VCDigest

(Welcome to my series of

#VCDigest

… where I give you stories you’ve heard… but never truly understood the intricate webs within them.)



Echoes of betrayal