Hope for Nduta as Kenyan officials arrive in Vietnam to seek leniency

A glimmer of hope now shines for Margaret Nduta, a Kenyan convicted of drug trafficking in Vietnam, after Kenyan officials arrived in the Asian country. 

This comes after the Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed on Friday that a consular team from Thailand had finally reached Ho Chi Minh City and gained access to Nduta in prison. 

Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Korir Sing’oei said that the team, based in Bangkok, successfully obtained travel visas and visited Nduta, whom they found “deeply distressed” but being treated “humanely.” 

He added they they will continue negotiations for leniency as Nduta awaits the outcome of an appeal filed “a few days ago.” 

In the meantime, we continue to engage our Vietnamese counterparts on other options toward resolving this difficult matter,’ he wrote on his X account on Friday. 

“We can confirm that while deeply distressed, Margaret is coping and has been treated humanely,” he added.  

Nduta was arrested in July 2023 with 2 kilogrammes of cocaine while  transiting to Laos, where she was supposed to deliver a luggage to unidentified woman. The woman was then to give her some “goods”  to take back to a man identified as John. 

She told court that she had successfully evaded detection at Bole International Airport in Ethiopia and Hamad International Airport in Qatar before being caught in Ho Chi Minh City.  Nduta was later convicted and sentenced to death, with her execution via lethal injection initially scheduled for Monday, 17th March. However, the date has since passed as Kenyan authorities work tirelessly to stop her execution.

On March 16, PS Sing’oei said he contacted Vietnam’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Madam Hang, via phone and conveyed the “anxiety of the Kenyan people over the impending execution.”

“I am grateful for Madam Hang’s assurance that our petition is under consideration by her authorities,” he posted on X.

Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi later confirmed that the Kenyan government has been engaging with Vietnamese authorities to seek a resolution.

“It is not a pleasant situation, and we hope there will be a solution. But there are issues that we must also address,” he said on March 19.

The case has sparked mixed reactions among the public, with various leaders calling for urgent diplomatic intervention as debates over her trial and imprisonment persist.

Her distressed family has been pleading with the government to intervene and save their daughter from the jaws of death. During a prayer session that the family organised at their home in Murang’a on Tuesday, they urged the government to intensify diplomatic efforts to secure Nduta’s repatriation to Kenya.

Nduta’s family has, however, maintained that the 37-year-old is innocent, dismissing reports that she had previously been arrested in Saudi Arabia and Ghana.