Embakasi East MP Babu Owino has urged President William Ruto to intervene in the case of Margaret Nduta Macharia, a 37-year-old Kenyan woman sentenced to death in Vietnam for drug trafficking.
In a video shared on his X account on Saturday, March 15, 2025, the legislator urged the president to personally engage with Vietnamese authorities to seek Nduta’s release. He emphasized that Kenyans should rally behind one of their own in such a life-threatening situation and called on the government to use all available diplomatic channels to prevent her execution.
The MP expressed his belief that Nduta was a victim of circumstance and not guilty of any crime, arguing that she was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. He further stated that President Ruto has the power to contact his Vietnamese counterpart to negotiate for her freedom.
” I want to ask and request President Ruto to help this Kenyan called Margaret Nduta who is supposed to be hanged/killed tomorrow. This lady did no crime, she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. She should not be hanged. We as Kenyans should stand behind our own, I know that he has the power to call the Vietnam President. Even if it’s to exchange with one corrupt cabinet secretary. We should not lose this lady. Mr.President kazi kwako,” Babu Owino stated.
Convicted
Nduta was convicted by the People’s Court in Ho Chi Minh City on March 6, 2025, after being found guilty of smuggling over two kilograms of cocaine through Tan Son Nhat International Airport. Under Vietnam’s strict drug laws, trafficking such large quantities of narcotics carries a mandatory death penalty.
Authorities arrested Nduta in July 2023 while she was in transit through Ho Chi Minh City en route to Laos. She claimed she was unaware that her luggage contained illegal drugs, stating that a Kenyan man known only as John had hired her to deliver a suitcase to a woman in Laos. For this, she was paid $1,300 (Ksh167,000), with all her travel expenses covered.
She passed through security checks at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, Bole International Airport in Ethiopia, and Hamad International Airport in Qatar before being apprehended in Vietnam. Upon her arrival in Ho Chi Minh City on July 14, 2023, customs officials discovered a hidden compartment in her suitcase containing over two kilograms of cocaine.
During her trial, Nduta denied any knowledge of the drugs, insisting she had no idea they were concealed in her bag. However, the prosecution rejected her defense, holding her fully responsible for transporting the narcotics.
Back in Kenya, Nduta’s family is making an emotional plea to the government for assistance. Her mother, Purity Wangari, a resident of Karikwe village in Kiharu, Murang’a County, only learned of her daughter’s sentencing through the internet on March 8. Devastated by the news, she is calling on the Kenyan government to step in and bring her daughter home.
