The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has announced that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia postponed the execution of a Kenyan identified as Stephen Munyakho popularly known as Abdulkareem.
Stephen who has stayed in prison for 13 years was due to be executed (death sentence) on Wednesday, May 15, 2024.
However, in a statement on Monday May 13, Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Korir Sing’oei announced that the execution will not happen as had been planned.
He explained that the postponement will allow negotiations to take place between the parties involved.
“I am deeply grateful to inform that authorities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have kindly granted our request to postpone the impending execution of Stephen Munyakho (now known as Abdulkareem), to allow for further negotiations between all parties,” Korir shared.
“As we devise strategies to bring this matter to a more acceptable conclusion, and thereby giving both families the closure they so urgently need and deserve, we shall continue to lean on the warm and solid friendship that we have with our Saudi partners, as well as on the goodwill of all Kenyans.”
The PS noted that in the coming days, the government shall be engaging stakeholders in Nairobi and Riyadh, including representations from the religious leadership, to agree on the next urgent steps.
“I wish to extend gratitude to our teams – both at the Ministry Headquarters and our Mission in Riyadh – for their tireless efforts,” he said.
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Stephen’s Family Pleads for Help
Munyakho’s mother, Dorothy Kweyu on May 7 appealed to the government to negotiate for an extension of the deadline to secure Stephen’s release from prison.
She further pleaded with Kenyans of goodwill to help her family raise the funds to have her son who has been in jail for 13 years, released.
Execution Charges Against Munyakho
Munyakho was found guilty of killing a Yemeni national in Saudi Arabia in April 2011.
Reports indicated that he was engaged in a fight while working as a warehouse manager with Mr Abdul Halim Mujahid Markad Saleh whose family currently lives in Saudi Arabia.
Munyakho’s mother Kweyu said Abdul, who stabbed Stephen in the thigh and thumb during the scuffle, walked himself to hospital where he later died.
Thereafter, Stephen Munyakho was tried for murder and received a five-year imprisonment, but the Yemeni family later appealed the sentence in Shariah Court, citing the ‘reciprocal right to retaliate’.
Initially, he was jailed for manslaughter, but an appeal by the deceased’s family saw him handed a death sentence after charges were upgraded to murder.
The case, heard in 2014, overturned the ruling of a five-year sentence to a death sentence by the sword.
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“However, this could not be done at the moment because a child (5 years) from the Yemeni family was involved. He was supposed to turn 18 to have a say on the execution of his father’s killer,” Kweyu said.
After negotiations, the victim’s family agreed to the Diya or blood money option—a financial compensation under Islamic law paid to the victim or heirs of the victim.
The initially agreed amount was 10 million Saudi Arabian Riyals (SAR) (equivalent to Ksh 400 million).
However, further negotiation between the two families would see the deceased family reduce the “blood money” to 3.5 million SAR (equivalent to Ksh. 150,000,000 at that time), which must be paid before his release.
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