Korir Sing'oei seeks diplomatic talks over Kenyan mother’s Saudi sentence

Kenya plans to address the case of a citizen sentenced in Saudi Arabia through diplomatic channels, according to Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Korir Sing'oei. He discussed the matter in a post on X on Wednesday, November 11, responding to a report by New York Times journalist Abdi Latif. The Kenyan worker at the centre of the case is Esther Wanja Muthoni. A Saudi court sentenced her last month to 100 lashes and a year of banishment after she gave birth outside marriage, the report says. Muthoni works as a domestic worker and is the mother of a one-year-old child. She has spent more than a year trying to return to Kenya with her baby, but has encountered repeated obstacles, according to the account. It was not clear whether the punishment had been carried out, whether she could appeal, or what concrete steps Nairobi would take next. Sing'oei acknowledged the severity of the sentence by Kenyan standards, but his comments did not amount to a direct challenge to Saudi Arabia’s legal system. The government’s response appears set to focus on diplomatic engagement rather than a public confrontation. The case has drawn attention to the challenges faced by East African women recruited for domestic work in Saudi Arabia. Rights groups have criticised laws that can penalise women who become pregnant outside marriage, and have raised concerns about the difficulty of proving sexual abuse or exploitation under the kingdom’s evidentiary rules. Kenya has previously intervened in cases involving citizens facing severe sentences abroad. The article cites Margaret Nduta, whose death sentence in Vietnam was commuted to life imprisonment after Kenyan officials appealed, and Stephen Munyakho, who received clemency in Saudi Arabia following negotiations with the victim’s family. Those earlier cases offer context for the government’s stated intention to pursue Muthoni’s case through diplomatic engagement.