The family of a woman who has been sentenced to death in a foreign country is appealing for the government’s intervention to save her from being executed.

Margaret Nduta was sentenced to death by the People’s Court in Vietnam last week upon being implicated in drug trafficking after she was nabbed carrying two kilogrammes of cocaine.

According to Purity Wangari, Nduta’s mother, her daughter left the country in search of greener pastures in July 2023 with a promise to support her.

Wangari however says she has never heard from the daughter since and only got the shocking news that Nduta has been sentenced to death.

Speaking from their home in Weithaga in Kiharu, Murang’a County, Nduta’s mother expressed how she believes her daughter could have been set up by someone leading to her arrest and prosecution.

According to her daughter, she had been given a parcel by someone she identified as Njoroge who offered to cater for the air ticket and she was to deliver it to an unidentified lady upon arrival.

“She had no idea on the content of the package but only got to know she was carrying drugs after being intercepted at the airport,” she says.

The distraught mother is pleading with the government through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to appeal the ruling.

Legal hurdle

“For close to two years since she left, we never communicated only for me to see her picture while in a courtroom,” Wangari adds while expressing how devastating it was to see her daughter looking helpless with no way of helping her out.

The family has no financial capacity to hire a lawyer to represent her.

“I would rather have her brought back in the country and serve a life sentence in the prison where I can be visiting her,” the mother.

Rosemary Wambui, Nduta’s sister, says her sibling’s dream of working abroad was cut short after the arrest.

According to her, Nduta was desperately searching for a job and when the opportunity cropped up she did not hesitate adding that this is where she could have been taken advantage of.

“I got a call from someone who never identified herself who told me that my sister has been arrested but did not tell me why,” she reveals.

After the call, she tried reaching out to her but Nduta eventually blocked her and they lost contact as there was no other way of communicating.

The family held on to the hope that she will be free and get home, only for them to see her story going viral on social media.

“We don’t want our sister killed there and we are appealing to the government to help bring her back,” says Wambui.

Neighbours say Nduta has grown up as a woman with good morals and they struggle to point out any bad behaviour associated with her, which is why the news shocked the village.

“We are urging the government to intervene in her case and bring her back home to the family,” said Catherine Watiri, a resident.

Mysterious man

Nduta, 37, was sentenced to death in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, after being found guilty of trafficking more than 2 kilogrammes of cocaine through the local airport.

According to court documents, Nduta was arrested in July 2023 while on transit to Laos.

After her arrest, she claimed that she had been hired by a man known only as John from Kenya and that she was to deliver the suitcase she was carrying to another woman. She was also to “bring back other goods from the woman”.

Nduta said she was paid $1,300(Sh167,000) by John who also footed the bill for air tickets, according to the indictment.

She told the court that she managed to avoid detection at three airports including the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi.

She successfully smuggled the drugs through security checks at both Bole International Airport in Ethiopia and Hamad International Airport in Qatar, before being caught in Ho Chi Minh.

Vietnam is known as a major hub for drug trafficking in the Golden Triangle, a region where China, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar meet.

However, 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.