The family of Margaret Nduta in Murang’a, a lady who was convicted by Vietnam authority_ may lose their daughter – and in a way, no one in the household could ever have imagined, not in a million years.
The order of execution which was halted from Sunday to Monday after government’s intervention is something that most of Kenyans are praying for since she argued that someone gave her brief case that had the drugs without her knowledge
Margaret Nduta, convicted of drug peddling in the drugs-averse Southeast Asian nation of Vietnam, is hours to face the gallows after she was nabbed in July 2023 at the Ho Chi Minh City Airport allegedly smuggling drugs into the country.
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Since her arrest, and subsequent conviction, which explicitly laid out her punishment – death -, Kenyans, from the government to the everyday folk on social media, have rallied around her cause, many petitioning the government to intervene and avert her death penalty.
The Kenyan Government, too, scrabbled around helplessly, trying to reach Vietnamese authorities and settle the matter more diplomatically than doing such inhumane act which to them is the punishment for drug peddlers.
Virtually everyone was roped in – senior lawyers, political pundits, diplomatic experts, civil society, online activists and that random drunk at the neighbourhood pub.
Despite their best efforts, this has continued to prove an arduous task to the Vietnamese.
Those in the know have agreed – this is not a simple matter and is not something you can merely sort out with a random transoceanic phone call and sweet governmental nothings.
It all started after a reportedly naive Nduta agreed to transport a suitcase to a woman in Laos, the Vietnamese capital, after receiving some Ksh.168,000 and full travel remuneration from a man only identified as John.
Despite maintaining that she was unaware of the suitcase’s contents, the court found her guilty of drug trafficking on March 6, 2025, and sentenced her to death
The family back at home have consistently said that they suspect the man who had sent Nduta and are requesting authorities to intervene and charge him for causing treacherous torture to their kin and sleepless nights to the family
The sentencing immediately knocked off a rapid string of reactions from across Kenya, first, from her family members who turned their home into an ad hoc press lobby, as they spent the following days in a relentless campaign, petitioning the government to intervene and save their daughter while also agreeing to a Kenyan jail sentence, provided they could visit their daughter at ease.
But even as she moaned and launched an impassioned crusade, Nduta’s mother – and her relatives at large – needed to be aware of one crucial fact: Vietnam has the world’s toughest drug laws, and anyone found guilty of possessing or smuggling more than 600 grams of heroin or cocaine or more than 2.5 kilos of methamphetamine faces the death penalty.
For context, Nduta had been busted with two kilos of cocaine.
As the case gathered momentum – and dominated headlines – Muranga Women Representative Sabina Chege took the matter right to Parliament, taking their time on the floor to draw attention to the Nduta plight while also catching the attention of the Speaker of the National Assembly Moses Wetangula
May she get justice,