Nduta among over 1,000 Kenyans in foreign prisons for various crimes – Mudavadi

The government has disclosed that Margaret Nduta, who has been sentenced to death in Vietnam, is among more than 1,000 Kenyans who are currently jailed abroad due to various offences, including drug trafficking.

Speaking on Wednesday, Foreign and Diaspora Affairs Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi said while the government is engaging Vietnam in discussions for Nduta’s release, there is no certainty regarding the outcome.

"Unfortunately, a Kenyan is facing this kind of situation. It is not pleasant and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in particular my PS, has been trying to converse with his counterpart in Vietnam. The talks have been for us to see if there can be a mitigation in this process and we hope that there will be some success so that there cannot be an execution," he said.

The CS assured that the government was working to gather more precise data on the number of Kenyans jailed abroad and their respective offences.

"I may not have the exact figure on Vietnam, but we have a total of about 1,000 Kenyans in different countries who are serving jail terms for different offences," he said, adding that not all cases were drug-related.

"We are trying to gather data because when Kenyans travel, they do not declare that they are travelling. They go on their own volition, and it is their right to go to whichever country they have been issued a visa for," he said.

On the issue of drug trafficking, Mudavadi clarified that the government was not passing judgment on Nduta’s guilt or innocence but was basing its engagement on Vietnam’s judicial process.

Sovereign laws

He stressed the importance of Kenyans adhering to the laws of the countries they visit, noting that while the government engages foreign authorities, it cannot override sovereign laws.

He said diplomatic missions had been instructed to regularly engage citizens to help them avoid legal troubles.

Vietnam enforces some of the world’s strictest drug laws, where possession of over 600 grammes of heroin or cocaine can result in the death penalty.

Nduta’s mother, Purity Wangui, who resides in Weithaga village, Murang’a County, has made a desperate appeal to the Kenyan authorities, including President William Ruto and Kiharu MP Ndindi Nyoro, to intervene and facilitate her daughter’s repatriation to serve her sentence in Kenya.

“I just want to see my daughter one last time before her execution,” Wangui said.

Reports indicate that drug trafficking networks often recruit Kenyan women as couriers, targeting routes through China, Singapore, Vietnam, India and Malaysia.

In 2018, former Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Monica Juma disclosed that at least 1,300 Kenyans were in foreign prisons, with 79 in Tanzania, 47 in Uganda and 15 in Ethiopia.

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• 000 Kenyans in foreign prisons for various crimes – Mudavadi

At the time, Washington Oloo, the then director of Diaspora and Consular Services in the ministry, reported that 478 of these individuals had been convicted and were serving sentences, most of them for life.