Margaret Nduta: Kenyan Spared Death Penalty in Vietnam, Handed Life Sentence
- Margaret Nduta now has the hope to live and fight for her freedom after the Vietnamese Supreme Court annulled her death penalty
- The Kenyan was instead handed a life sentence, giving her the latitude to beg for clemency from the South Asian country's president
- Nduta was due for execution earlier in the year after being convicted of serious offences, but the Kenyan government intervened to save her
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The Vietnamese People's Supreme Court has converted the death penalty for Kenyan Margaret Nduta to a life sentence.
Source: Twitter
Nduta was due for execution after being convicted of substance trafficking.
The court's decision follows an appeal initiated by Kenya earlier in the year; Nairobi argued that Nduta was not represented during her trial.
Despite the appeal, the Kenyan's lifeline was still dependent on the Vietnamese court. They reserved the right to consider the appeal or allow the execution.
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The decision to annul the death penalty was announced on Thursday, July 31.
Did Vietnamese government rescue Margaret Nduta immediately?
It comes after the Vietnamese government forwent capital punishment for a host of criminal offences, trafficking of narcotics being one of them.
In the course of the amendment to the Penal Code, the Ministry of Public Security argued that the punishment materialises in rare occurrences and sparingly, hence no need to have it in place, adding that it sidelines Vietnam from other international jurisdictions that have either scrapped capital punishment or reduced its scope.
Despite the review of the Vietnamese Penal Code, the death penalty remains for the offences deemed heinous, including murder, child sexual abuse, acts of terrorism, treason and extreme cases of drug trafficking.
The penalty is executed through lethal injection.
Meanwhile, Nduta's predicament kicked off in July 2023.
The 37-year-old was arrested at Tan Son Nhat International Airport after authorities discovered two kilograms of illicit drugs in her luggage.
She had allegedly been paid by another unknown Kenyan to transport a suitcase to Laos, which neighbours Vietnam in the north.
Court papers during her trial showed she was instructed to deliver the suitcase to a contact in Lao and return with unidentified items.
Nduta, according to the Vietnamese state prosecution, was paid an advance of $1,300 (about KSh 170,000), and her travel expenses, including airfare, were fully covered.
How Margaret Nduta was caught
Her journey included transiting through multiple countries before arriving in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) on July 14, 2023.
Source: Twitter
Due to her late arrival, airport staff helped her with immigration clearance and coordinated her connection to Laos.
During this process, customs agents discovered the concealed drugs in her luggage.
She feigned ignorance in her defence; she said she had no knowledge of the narcotics inside the suitcase she was travelling with.
But her account was strongly opposed by the Vietnamese prosecutors, who dismissed it as an attempt to evade accountability, arguing that she ought to be held accountable for her acts.
How did Kenyan government try to help Nduta?
In March this year, the Kenyan authorities sent an envoy to Vietnam to negotiate the penalty handed to Nduta.
Kenya does not have an embassy in Hanoi; Kenya's ambassador to Thailand was instead deployed with his team to Hanoi to represent the government.
Despite the matter being adjudicated in court and in a jurisdiction different from Kenya's, Nairobi sought to leverage diplomacy to handle the matter.
Which other Kenyan faced death penalty abroad?
Nduta's story followed that of Stephen Munyakho, who was handed capital punishment in Saudi Arabia after being convicted of murder.
Munyakho was accused of killing a Saudi Arabian national with whom he worked in the Gulf country.
A judgment was passed against him, and he was to be executed last year, before the Kenyan government intervened.
Through its presence in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia's capital, Nairobi negotiated with the bereaved family through the Saudi government; the family floated millions to be settled as blood money before Munyakho would be let off the hook.
Through the support of the government, Munyakho was granted clemency after KSh 129 million in blood money was paid.
He returned to Kenya on July 29 after 14 years in jail.
Proofreading by Mercy Nyambura, copy editor at TUKO.co.ke.
Source: TUKO.co.ke
