Kenyan Govt Finally Breaks Silence After Saudi Arabia Punish Woman for Having Kid Outside Marriage

The Kenyan government says it will engage Saudi Arabia diplomatically after a Kenyan domestic worker was sentenced to 100 lashes and a year of banishment for giving birth outside marriage.

Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Korir Sing’oei responded on Wednesday, November 11, in a post on X. He was replying to a post by New York Times journalist Abdi Latif, who had reported the case.

Sing’oei said he was saddened by the sentence, which would amount to “cruel and inhuman” punishment under Kenyan law.

He added that Kenya respects the sovereignty of Saudi Arabia’s legal system and will keep working with its counterparts on the complex issue of judicial enforcement.

The statement stopped short of directly challenging the Saudi justice system. It does, however, acknowledge how severe the punishment is by Kenyan standards, and it suggests Nairobi prefers quiet diplomatic channels to public confrontation.

The woman at the centre of the case is Esther Wanja Muthoni. A Saudi court sentenced her last month. She is the mother of a one-year-old child and has spent more than a year trying to return to Kenya with her baby, facing obstacles at every turn.

Muthoni is one of thousands of East African women recruited to work in Saudi Arabia as housekeepers and nannies.

Rights groups have long criticised how Saudi law can punish women who fall pregnant outside marriage, including in cases involving abuse or exploitation. They point out that proving rape in the kingdom requires evidence that is extremely hard to produce.

Kenya has previously secured clemency for citizens facing severe sentences abroad, including in Vietnam and Saudi Arabia.

It remains unclear whether the sentence has been carried out, whether an appeal is still possible, or what steps Kenya plans to take next.

Source: https://www.facebook.com/share/1AF7dcbAdG/