Munyakho finally returns to Kenya after Saudi death sentence overturned
By Mustafa Juma, July 29, 2025Steve Abdulkareem Munyakho, the Kenyan migrant worker who had been facing a death sentence in Saudi Arabia, is finally on his way back home after the sentence was overturned.
The news was confirmed on the night of Monday, July 28, 2025, by Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Korir Sing’oei, who announced that Munyakho was travelling back in the company of Kenya’s ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed Ruwange.
“Steve Abdulkareem Munyakho is homewards bound in the company of Kenya’s ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed Ruwange,” PS Sing’oei posted on social media.
Munyakho’s case had captured national attention, with widespread calls from Kenyans and human rights groups demanding government intervention.
Diplomatic intervention
His return follows a successful and months-long diplomatic intervention led by the government of Kenya.
The breakthrough, confirmed by the Office of the Prime Cabinet Secretary and Ministry of Foreign and Diaspora Affairs on Wednesday, July 23, 2025, marked the end of a tense legal and humanitarian ordeal that had gripped Munyakho’s family and attracted national attention.
“Mr. Munyakho was released and is expected to return to Kenya as early as today. This outcome is the culmination of relentless high-level diplomatic engagement between Nairobi and Riyadh,” read the statement.
The intervention was spearheaded by President William Ruto, Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi, Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Korir Sing’oei, and the Ministry’s diplomatic corps.
The Prime CS said Munyakho’s return now symbolises not just the end of a legal battle, but also the growing role of diplomacy in safeguarding the dignity and rights of citizens abroad, even in the most complex of cases.
Munyakho’s sentence
Mudavadi had personally written to the Saudi Foreign Minister seeking clemency immediately after the sentence was issued last year.
“In July last year, while addressing the Senate, I confirmed that the Ministry had intervened to stop the execution. The execution was deferred and did not take place,” recalled Mudavadi.
The sentence, which was delivered in early 2024, was temporarily suspended following Kenya’s formal appeal. President Ruto personally raised the issue with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, urging for clemency and a window for negotiations with the victim’s family over diyya blood money compensation allowed under Saudi law.