Several Kenyans have landed in serious problems in foreign lands over the years. Some go to this lands seeking greener pastures only for them to end up with legal problems such as murder, drug trafficking among other serious offences.

According to reports, about 3,000 Kenyans are serving jail terms in foreign countries. In 2016, the then Attorney General Githu Muigai had said that a bill was being drafted to repatriate Kenyan convicts in foreign lands so that they can serve their remaining prison terms in local prisons and its only a matter of time before it comes to pass.

Here are some of the serious cases Kenyans are dealing with abroad;

Margaret Nduta’s drug trafficking case

The 37 year old was sentenced to death in Vietnam on March 6, 2025 for drug trafficking. She was nabbed in July 2023 at the Ho Chi Minh City Airport. Her execution is due but the government has promised to do everything in its power to find an alternative for Nduta’s sentence.

“Nduta’s case is complex and difficult but we are doing everything possible within our disposal to secure reprieve for our national,” Foreign Affairs PS Korir Sing’oei said.

Meanwhile, her family from Murang’a is hoping to see their kin alive for one more time.

Stephen Munyakho

Munyakho was supposed to be executed in November 26, 2024 in Saudi Arabia. Luckily, his sentence was delayed for another year amid negotiations between the Kenyan mission in Riyadh, Saudi authorities and the family of the victim.  Munyakho is facing death sentence over the death of a Yemeni national which occurred after the duo engaged in a fight. The incident happened in 2011 when he was serving as a manager at a warehouse. The Yemeni national was his colleague. In 2011, he was convicted of manslaughter by a court in Saudi. This was however overturned to murder by a Sharia court in 2014.

His execution was first set for May 13, 2024. It was then postponed to June, 2024 and later to November 2024. The 50-year old’s execution is by sword.

The death sentence can however be avoided if he is able to raise Kshs352.2 million for blood money. The agreement was reached upon in 2019 with the Yemeni national’s family.

Aside from the two cases that caught the world’s attention in the near past, there is the case of Chollo Abdi Abdullah.  The 35 year old was convicted in US for conspiring with Al Shaabab to attack a tall building in America in a manner that was witnessed in the 9/11 attacks. He is facing a life imprisonment.

Baktash Akasha, a renown drug lord from Kenya, was sentenced to 25 years in the US in August 2019, for conspiring to import heroin and methamphetamine, among other crimes. Prosecutors had however wanted him to serve a life sentence after he pleaded guilty.

66-year old Samuel Wambugu was jailed in US for over 17 years after he was found guilty of sexually assaulting an 85-year old patient at a nursing home where he was serving as a caregiver. The victim was suffering from dementia and alzheimer’s. His case is no different  from Josto Nyakeyo’s.

Nyakeyo received a life imprisonment  for sexually assaulting an elderly woman at a nursing home some years back.

Kevin Kang’ethe Kinyanjui sought refuge in Kenya after killing and dumping his wife’s body at an airport in US in Boston in October 2023. After being on the run for several months, the accused was arrested in Kenya and extradited to US in September last year to face murder charges.