Ten days from today, a man born in Pumwani, Nairobi, on the morning of March 5, 1974, could be facing a fateful D-Day in Saudi Arabia if no last-minute intervention is made.
A death sentence sanctioned by Sharia law is set to befall Stephen Bertrand Munyakho and close the chapter of his 50-year eventful stay on earth.
He has lived 22 years in Kenya; 28 in Saudi Arabia with 13 of those 28 spent in prison in the Middle Eastern kingdom. He had scored a C+ at Nyang'ori High School and went to the Middle East to make money to enable him to go to the United States or the United Kingdom to get a university degree.
Death, cash and editors 13-year cry to save son in Saudi jail Kenyan woman stuck in a Saudi hospital appeals for helpStephen, fondly known as Stevo, is in prison now. In conversations with his family, he says prisoners there use the word blackout as a euphemism for executions. He has woken up to not-so-few blackouts in prison.
he typically tells his mother.
But his shaken family doesnt want it to come to that.
His 73-year-old mother, Dorothy Kweyu, is a woman full of prayer. She is knocking on doors. Making and receiving calls lengthy calls. Hoping. Pleading. Pushing. Thinking.
What if Kenyans decide to join forces to save her son from the sword? She wonders.
A Paybill number is circulating. There is also a ready M-Pesa number. GoFundMe, a crowdfunding and fundraising platform, shut doors on them, though, not buying the story behind why they were fundraising.
The money required to divert Stephens life from the path of the sword is 3.5 million Saudi Arabia Riyals (SAR), equal to Sh123.3 million on todays rates.
The family has fundraised an equivalent of Sh5.5 million. Will they get the remainder in the next 10 days?
May 15 is the deadline one family has given Stephen to pay for causing the death of their husband and father in 2011.
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That scares me a lot because Ive tried to ask what happens [after that deadline]. So far, Ive not heard any conclusive word, says Ms Kweyu.
Working as a warehouse manager, Stephen was engaged in a fight with Mr Abdul Halim Mujahid Markad Saleh, a Yemeni national whose family currently lives in Saudi Arabia. This was on April 9, 2011.
Ms Kweyu says Mr Abdul, who stabbed Stephen in the thigh and thumb during the scuffle, walked himself to hospital where later died.
Stephen was initially jailed for manslaughter but the dead mans family successfully moved to the Shariah court, appealed and were successful. That saw an upgrade of the charges to murder.
Stephen was to die by the sword in 2014 when the appeal succeeded, but it happened that one of Mr Abduls children was only five years old. All the children have to consent to that form of justice. The family had to wait till the child turned 18 to give his consent.
The child has since hit 18. However, during that wait, negotiations happened and the family agreed to take money in exchange for not having Stephen executed.
It [waiting for the minor to reach 18] bought us time and we thank God for that, says Ms Kweyu.
Mr Abduls family first quoted SAR 10 million (Sh352.2 million) as the blood money (called diya) but went down to SAR3.5 million upon negotiations.
On Friday, the spoke with Ms Kweyu, a veteran journalist, on the fundraising efforts. The excerpts below.
I plead with my fellow Kenyans to assist me to raise the money that is needed to bring Steve back. I know it can be done.
There was a point where the amount due was as high as Sh150 million, and my son, the next boy in the rank to Steve [Steve is the firstborn of nine children], was quick to say that, Look, one million Kenyans contributing only Sh150 can get out Steve in a day. But its easier said than done.
The giving has been generous, and I believe that if the word reaches out widely enough, this can happen.
I also know that if our government has the will, they can assist even holding surety for us for my son to come back home.
I can say without batting an eyelid that the government, that is the embassy in Riyadh, has never abandoned me. But what is lacking is that final push.
