Family of Kenyan jailed in Saudi Arabia appeals for over Ksh.100 Million

Stephen Munyakho is scheduled to be executed on the 26th of November for the murder of a Yemeni man in 2011. 

Through a public appeal, the family has raised Ksh.11 million so far out of the required Ksh.150 million for Munyakho's blood money, known as "Diyah" under Islamic law, which is necessary to secure a pardon from the victim’s family. 

Munyakho, affectionately known as Stevo, moved to Saudi Arabia in his early 20s and has been held at Shimeisha Prison in Mecca for the last 13 years.

“Our target was to raise the Ksh.150 million. So far we have put together about Ksh.11 million which is less than 20 percent of the required sum. Our purpose now is to renew the targeted initiative by appealing to Kenyans and all people of goodwill to please donate generously to this course. By our calculations, if just 100, 000 Kenyans sending Ksh.1000 each, we would raise Ksh.100, 000 which will get us closer to the target,” said Joseph Odindo, the Chair, the Bring Back Stevo Committee.

“I am in touch with Stevo and as late as last evening, he called…he can call but I cannot call him. He was in good health and I told him we would be having this press conference and he is praying that Kenyans might come out for him,” his mother Dorothy Kweyu added. 

Earlier, Prime Cabinet Secretary (CS) Musalia Mudavadi told the Senate that the government has no budget allocation to settle 'blood money' for Stephen Bertrand Munyakho, a Kenyan man facing execution in Saudi Arabia.

Munyakho, 50, has spent 13 years in different Saudi prisons and was sentenced to death by the sword after being involved in a fight with a colleague in April 2011 and the other party succumbed to injuries. 

The victim's family has since demanded the costly 'blood money' or 'diya' - a financial compensation under Islamic law paid to the victim or heirs of a victim in the cases of murder, bodily harm, or involuntary property destruction.

Appearing before the legislative House, Mudavadi said that there is a pending relief since Munyakho's execution was deferred but the compensation amount cannot be settled unless the victim's family scales it down.

"The family has raised Ksh.10 million. There is no budgetary provision for the government to settle this kind of situation whether in Saudi or any other country," he said.