Former Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko has dismissed allegations that he travelled to Vietnam as part of the team sent by the Kenyan government to stop the execution of Margaret Nduta.
Speaking on Tuesday morning, the former county head clarified that he was still in Kenya and that the clip circulating on social media, purporting to show him in Vietnam, was fake.
The footage shared on TikTok claimed that Sonko had travelled to the Asian country, where he met Vietnamese government officials to address the looming execution of Nduta, a 37-year-old Kenyan woman found guilty of drug trafficking.
While addressing the matter, Sonko stated that the clip allegedly showing him in Vietnam was actually from a photo he had taken alongside Chinese officials at his office in Nairobi.
“I have seen a fake story making rounds on TikTok that I have landed in Vietnam to stop Margaret Nduta’s execution. It is from a blogger who is alleging that I am in Vietnam,” Sonko commented.
“This is not Vietnam. From the photo, you can see my office watch and the background. The people in the photo are not even Vietnamese; they are Chinese,” he added.
However, despite clarifying the issue, Sonko called on President William Ruto’s administration to intervene and arrest the main suspect who facilitated Nduta’s journey to the Asian nation.
According to the former governor, the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), in collaboration with other investigative agencies, should conduct a thorough analysis of Nduta’s phone records and trace her accomplices.
Sonko’s remarks come hours after the Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary informed Citizen TV that a team of representatives from the Kenyan embassy in Bangkok, Thailand, had travelled to Hanoi, Vietnam, in a last-minute effort to save Margaret Nduta from execution.
Nduta was sentenced to death by a Vietnamese court after being found guilty of drug trafficking and was set to be executed yesterday around 4.30 pm.
The PS, who spoke to the platform on Monday, March 17, revealed that Kenya’s ambassadors from Thailand travelled to Vietnam to negotiate clemency for the 37-year-old.
Sing’Oei further disclosed that Kenya's representatives in Thailand would also negotiate a stay of Nduta’s execution to allow further engagement between Kenya and the Vietnamese government.
