“I want young people to know that it is not cool to kill your boyfriend or girlfriend instead it is cool to walk away from a relationship when it breaks down. The accused person won’t be a hero to others”-Justice Jessie Lesiit.

It’s these words made by Justice Jessie Lesiit, in her ruling on the murder charges surrounding Ruth Kamande that threw the country in a heated debate.

Justice Lesiit went ahead to sentence the Miss Lang’ata Women’s Prison, who had been charged with stabbing her boyfriend 22 times, to death.

Going by Facebook updates and tweets made against regarding the death sentence meted on Ruth Kamande, majority feel sorry for her and are of the opinion that she could have been accorded a lighter sentence like manslaughter considering it was a crime of passion.

“Too beautiful to die in jail” One Tweep said.

The rest of the opinion gave a nod to the ruling by Justice Jessie Lesiit saying, Ms Kamande should pay for murdering her boyfriend.

“The law doesn’t care if you are beautiful or ugly, a criminal is a criminal, let her be hanged” another tweeted.

The beauty queen stabbed her boyfriend to dead 22 times in 2015 after she allegedly discovered he was cheating on her.

However , what was clear from the reactions is that majority of Kenyans do not really understand what constitutes a capital offence and the penalty it attracts.

LAST JUDICIAL HANGING IN KENYA

Kenya has not carried out a death sentence in the past 30 years and most sentences for death row prisoners are commuted to life imprisonment. The last judicial hanging in Kenya took place in 1987, when the August 1, 1982, coup plotters Hezekiah Ochuka and Pancras Oteyo Okumu were executed following a court-martial.