Peter Murigi And Cyrus Ombati
27 November 2006
Nairobi — A Kenyan student has been jailed for life in China after she was arrested over drug trafficking.
Ms Oliviah Singaniabe Munoko, 26, was convicted on her own guilty plea for trying to sneak 1.896 kg of heroin from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to China.
Life imprisonment for Munoko is a tragic case because she was supposed to sit her final year examinations at the university, where she was pursuing a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics.
Coincidentally, Malaysia is the same country where two other Kenyan students, Ms Deborah Donde and Ms Maureen Gathoni, are in custody as authorities investigate them and some friends for trafficking in marijuana.
Sentence lenient but tragic
The Guangzhou Intermediate People's Court sentenced Munoko on Monday. She had been in prison cells for nine months since her arrest on March 10.
Foreign Affairs minister, Mr Raphael Tuju who spoke to The Standard on Munoko's fate, described the sentence as lenient but tragic.
Lenient because under Chinese law, drug traffickers are supposed to be summarily executed and tragic because Munoko's life will go to waste after spending 15 years in school, three of them at University of Nairobi.
Munoko's journey to prison started on March 10 when she was arrested at Guangzhou Bai Yun International Airport carrying the drugs in a bag.
Tuju said Munoko confessed that she committed the offence intentionally to make money to settle her family's financial problems.
Malaysia has executed 100 culprits
The minister said the two students being held in Malaysia will appear in court on Friday.
Drug traffickers in Malaysia face either death or life imprisonment when convicted.
So far, Malaysia has executed 100 culprits, a third of them foreigners since 1981 when the anti-drugs laws were enacted.
Separately, a Kenyan woman was arrested with cocaine worth Sh8 million. The suspect was arrested on Sunday morning at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport on arrival from Dakar, Senegal.
Her documents showed she had travelled to Johannesburg, Sao Paulo, Cape Verde, and Dakar.
She will be taken to court either today or tomorrow, Airport Police Commandant Ms Beatrice Nduta and her CID counterpart, Ms Judy Ndeda, said on Monday.
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