Kenyan Woman Faces Execution in Vietnam for Drug Smuggling; Government Appeals for Clemency

37 year old Kenyan Margaret Nduta Macharia was sentenced to death in Vietnam for drug trafficking following a last minute appeal by the Kenyan government to delay executing her. Nduta was sentenced by a Vietnamese court on March 6, 2025, for smuggling over two kilograms of cocaine through Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City in July 2023.

After the sentencing, Kenya’s Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Korir Sing’Oei described the case of Nduta as “complex and difficult” but promised citizens that diplomatic efforts are underway. In his view, Kenya had reached out to Vietnam’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Minh Hang to request a stay of execution pending the pursuit of other alternatives.

“The government has written to Vietnamese authorities at the highest level to seek a reprieve and other possible interventions,” Sing’Oei confirmed. Vietnamese authorities have received Kenya’s appeal and assured that it is under consideration.

Senior Kenyan leaders and human rights activists have also added their voices to Nduta’s family, demanding intervention. Kisii Senator Richard Onyonka has urged President William Ruto to intervene and negotiate clemency for Nduta, adding that she should be repatriated to serve her sentence in Kenya rather than being executed in Vietnam

This is a critical situation that calls for urgent diplomatic intervention. We cannot stand idly by and watch one of our own suffer such a violent fate without exhausting every avenue available to attempt to save her life,” Onyonka declared in a public address.

Nduta’s family has been stunned by the looming hanging. Her mother, Purity Wangui, made a poignant appeal to the state to intervene and bring her daughter back home.

“I want to see my daughter before they hang her. I do not know how to go to Vietnam, and I am appealing to the government to help us,” Wangui cried during an interview.

The family has also called upon human rights organizations to help them in their application for clemency for Nduta.
Vietnam’s drug laws are among the most stringent in the world and those convicted of trafficking more than 600 grams of heroin or cocaine are subject to the death penalty. Vietnam carries out executions mainly through lethal injection. Foreigners have also been given death sentences in such cases, showing Vietnam’s stern stance against drug offenses.

So far, Kenyan authorities continue to call for a diplomatic solution. The government’s primary aim is to get either Nduta’s sentence commuted or for her to be repatriated to serve a prison sentence in Kenya. International human rights organizations are also being asked to move and call for her life to be spared.

Kenya’s foreign affairs department hopes that their appeals will be heard before it is too late. The issue has sparked nation-wide discussion about the danger of drug trafficking and the need for more robust action to protect Kenyan citizens overseas from the stringent foreign courts’ punishments.

As the date for her execution draws near, Margaret Nduta’s destiny is left in the hands of effective diplomacy and the mercy of Vietnam’s government to grant her clemency.