Kenya’s Foreign Affairs Ministry is racing against time to save Margaret Nduta Macharia, a 37-year-old Kenyan facing execution in Vietnam on Monday for drug trafficking.
Convicted on March 6 by Ho Chi Minh City’s People’s Court for smuggling over two kilograms of cocaine, Nduta’s fate has sparked a desperate diplomatic push as her family and lawmakers beg for clemency.
Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Korir Sing’oei called the case “complex and difficult” on Sunday, hours after phoning Vietnam’s Deputy Minister Nguyen Minh Hang.
“I conveyed the anxiety of Kenyans over Nduta’s impending execution and requested a stay to find a resolution,” Sing’oei posted on X.
Hang assured him Vietnam is weighing Kenya’s plea, while the Kenyan embassy in Bangkok—handling Vietnam affairs—tracks the case closely. With no embassy in Hanoi and Vietnam’s mission in Tanzania covering Kenya, diplomatic ties are stretched thin.
Nduta’s family in Murang’a and legislators like Kisii Senator Richard Onyonka are pressing President William Ruto to negotiate her repatriation, even if to serve a local sentence.
In a March 14 letter, Onyonka urged Ruto to seek humanitarian leniency, commuting Nduta’s death penalty to life imprisonment. “She’s one of ours,” her mother, Purity Wangari, tearfully pleaded last week.
Arrested in July 2023 en route to Laos, Nduta claims a Kenyan man duped her into carrying the drugs. Vietnam’s ironclad laws—death for trafficking over 600 grams of cocaine—left her no mercy in court.
She’s set for her final meal at 7:30 p.m. Monday, execution at 8:30 p.m., unless Hanoi blinks. As Kenya’s last engagement with Vietnam dates back to 2020, this 11th-hour appeal tests Nairobi’s diplomatic muscle—and Nduta’s life hangs in the balance.
