Om March 6, 2025, Margaret Nduta was sentenced to death by the People’s Court in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. She was found guilty of trafficking two kilograms of cocaine through Vietnam.
Nduta, who hails from Murang’a County was arrested on July 2023. She had been paid Sh167,000 to smuggle the drugs.
Nduta becomes the latest in a growing list of desperate Kenyan women who are being lured into international drug trafficking rings with the promise of big money, only to end up with death sentences or life imprisonment.
Some of these women include Flovianne Owino who was arrested in Guangzhou Baiyun Airport for drug trafficking in May 2013 and sentenced to death. Flovianne had not always been a criminal. She had been working as a mitumba seller until she met a woman known as Sharon Adhiambo who was in a relationship with a Nigerian.
At the time, Flovianne was just a young mother to a three year old girl. When she arrested and sentenced to death, the Kenyan government sought to have her sentence commuted to life imprisonment, a request that the Chinese government appeared to have been willing to accept. It is believed that Flovianne’s death sentence may have been reduced to life imprisonment at Guangzhou prison.
Another Kenyan woman, Mariam Mweke was arrested in New Delhi in 2018 alongside two Nigerian men. She was arrested with 2.5 kilograms of heroin which she was trafficking through India.
On March 10, 2006, another woman, Oliviah Munoko who was just 26 years old was nabbed with 1.8 kilograms of cocaine at the Guangzhou Bai Yun International Airport. She had arrived at the airport on a plane from Malaysia. As a result of her cooperation with the authorities, she was spared the death sentence and instead handed life imprisonment.
KNH doctor who worked for free dies after KNH ‘denied’ him treatment
In 2017, Rose Achieng was arrested in Malaysia for drug trafficking. She was arrested with 71 capsules of methamphetamine. She had swallowed 68 capsules and hidden three capsules in her vagina. She was sentenced to death but this was later changed to life imprisonment.
Ann Wambui Maina is another Kenyan woman who was arrested in the middle of a drug-delivery mission in Hong Kong and sent to prison for eight years. She was arrested at the Hong Kong International Airport in 2007.
Between 2006 and 2009, it was estimated that up to 20 young women who had been lured into the world of drug trafficking were languishing in prisons, mainly in Asia. Apparently recruitments of female drug mules – as traffickers are widely known – took place in targeted Nairobi slums in the 2010s and was mainly spearheaded by West African nationals running drug syndicates in Kenya.
Did you love the story? You can also share YOUR story and get it published on Bizna Click here to get started.