Govt Confirms Nduta Alive, Announces Execution Trial as Diplomatic Talks with Vietnam Intensify

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has confirmed that Margaret Nduta, a 37-year-old Kenyan woman facing execution in Vietnam for drug trafficking, is alive and receiving humane treatment, despite being “deeply distressed.”

Principal Secretary Korir Sing’Oei announced on Friday that a consular team, dispatched from Bangkok, successfully secured travel visas and gained access to Nduta at Hoi Chi Minh Prison, where she has been held since her arrest in July 2023.

Nduta’s case has gripped the nation and sparked a diplomatic scramble as Kenya races against time to prevent her execution by lethal injection.

Arrested while transiting through Ho Chi Minh City en route to Laos, Nduta was caught with over two kilograms of cocaine concealed in a suitcase.

She claims she was unwittingly hired by a man known only as “John,” who paid her $1,300 (Sh167,000) and provided air tickets to deliver the suitcase to an unnamed woman.

Nduta told Vietnamese authorities she successfully passed through security checks at three airports—JKIA in Nairobi, Bole International in Ethiopia, and Hamad International in Qatar—before her capture in Vietnam, a known drug trafficking hub in the Golden Triangle region.

Vietnam’s stringent drug laws mandate the death penalty for anyone caught smuggling more than 600 grams of cocaine, a threshold Nduta far exceeded. Convicted on March 6, 2025, her initial execution date was set for March 17 but was postponed amid Kenya’s diplomatic interventions.

Dr. Sing’Oei described the situation as a “difficult matter,” noting that while Nduta lacked legal representation during her trial, an appeal has been filed and is scheduled to be heard soon.

“In the meantime, we continue to engage our Vietnamese counterparts on other options towards resolving this difficult matter,” he said in a statement.

The confirmation of Nduta’s survival offers a glimmer of hope to her family and supporters, who have been vocal in their belief that she was framed.

Easy money

Nduta in Kenya.

However, her case brings to light a troubling trend of young Kenyan women being ensnared by international drug syndicates.

Historical cases, such as that of Floviance Owino, arrested in China in 2013 and initially sentenced to death before a two-year suspension, highlight the perilous lure of “easy money” for vulnerable individuals.

Similarly, Rose Achieng Ojala faced execution in Malaysia in 2017 for trafficking methamphetamine, only to have her sentence commuted to life imprisonment, while Oliviah Singaniabe Munoko received a life sentence in China in 2006 for smuggling heroin.

Kenya’s Foreign Ministry has pledged ongoing consular support as Nduta’s appeal progresses, amid broader efforts to address the plight of over 1,200 Kenyans imprisoned globally for drug-related offenses as of 2019.

The government’s diplomatic engagement with Vietnam signals a critical push to either secure clemency or negotiate Nduta’s repatriation to serve a sentence in Kenya.

As the appeal date approaches, Nduta’s fate remains uncertain.