HANOI, Vietnam — Margaret Nduta, a Kenyan woman who was on death row in Vietnam for drug trafficking, can now find relief after a Vietnamese court commuted her death penalty to a life sentence.
Nduta was arrested in July 2023 upon her arrival in Ho Chi Minh City, accused of trafficking two kilos of narcotics.
In Vietnam, laws stipulate that those found trafficking at least 100 grams of narcotics face the death penalty. This was the sentence initially handed down to Nduta after she was found guilty of the offense.
However, a recent amendment to Vietnam’s Penal Code, which exempted drug trafficking from facing the death sentence, provided Nduta a lifeline.
During a Supreme Court sitting in Ho Chi Minh City, Nduta pleaded her case, stating that she was a transit passenger en route to Laos, a neighboring country.
She claimed she was arrested after a connecting flight was delayed and that the drugs found in her possession were loaded without her knowledge.
Upon review, the Supreme Court judges found her guilty but commuted her sentence from the death penalty to life imprisonment in line with the new changes in the law.
Nduta will, however, still have the opportunity to seek clemency, a power vested in the Vietnamese President.
Following her initial death sentence, the Kenyan government formally intervened by requesting a stay of execution.
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Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi and his team have since pursued diplomatic channels to secure her acquittal.
In his latest statement, Mudavadi announced that his office is currently working to repatriate more than 1,000 Kenyans incarcerated abroad.
The Prime CS also used the opportunity to plead with Kenyans traveling abroad to be vigilant of a country’s laws to avoid similar incidents.
“Please, young Kenyans that are going out, remember that the moment you board a plane and the wheels have lifted, when you land in whatever country you’re going into, the laws that apply are not Kenyan laws,” Mudavadi said in March 2025.
