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.
Stephen, 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.
“Leo tumeamka kwa giza,” he typically tells his mother.
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.
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 Stephen’s life from the path of the sword is 3.5 million Saudi Arabia Riyals (SAR), equal to Sh123.3 million on today’s 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.
“That scares me a lot because I’ve tried to ask what happens [after that deadline]. So far, I’ve 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 man’s 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 Abdul’s 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 Abdul’s 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 Sunday Nation spoke with Ms Kweyu, a veteran journalist, on the fundraising efforts. The excerpts below.
Stephen Munyakho with his brother, Cyprian (left) during annual leave from his work station in Saudi Arabia, with their mother, Dorothy Kweyu.
Photo credit: Pool
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 it’s 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.
The Saudi embassy in Nairobi has also been very much involved. No ambassador has ever come and just gone away without meeting me.
For me, Stephen is not a murderer. He never went out of his way to murder his friend. And it is on the strength of that, I believe, that the preliminary court that heard Steve’s case, sentenced him to him five years in jail for manslaughter.
Steve is my child. He’ll never be a murderer. Inasmuch as he’s now 50, he’s still my child.
I’m still praying and hoping that I’ll be given an opportunity to embrace this young woman [Nadia, the widow].
I’ve always prayed, ‘God, give me an opportunity to see Nadia, to embrace her and tell her, “My daughter, I’m so sorry about what happened. These were friends.”’
There was a time I wanted to visit Saudi Arabia to meet her and to see my son in prison. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs assisted me with a letter to get a visa. And they gave me a letter to take to the embassy of Saudi Arabia that time. I never got a visa. We never got visas until the tickets expired. Normally, a ticket is important to show that you will go and come back. But it was always, ‘The widow is not ready to see you.’ They shut the door on me.
My appeal to his family is if they could extend the elapsing period by at least another six months. We would also want further talks to see if the money can be further reduced, because that money is unheard of. In fact, many people say, ‘You can’t manage.’ But because he is our son, we are appealing to the generosity of each and every person who hears this story to throw in their lot with us.
We are on tenterhooks, because I don’t know what the next 10 or so days hold. I don’t know if they’ll say, ‘Take back whatever you have collected’. The [bank] account that is provided collects money and auto-shuts the moment all the money [in this case the required SAR3.5 million] is deposited. You can’t put an extra cent. There’s some money in it already, which came from the friends [in Saudi Arabia] who collected 59,500 Saudi Arabia riyals, which is like Sh2.1 million. We have collected Sh3.5 million here. We sent some of it a while back, but it bounced back because apparently there are these money laundering fears and so on. We have been advised by his excellency, the ambassador, that next time we are sending, we warn them so that they warn the bank to expect so much money from Kenya.
The Paybill number is 8056675. Once you key it in, it will bring up the account name “Let’s Bring Back Stevo”. The account number is the sender’s name. For those who would wish to send the money directly, they can use the M-Pesa number 0702-878-717. The recipient’s name will appear as Dorothy Musopole.
GoFundMe was the first one to fail. Apparently, they call it (what we are fundraising for) ransom. They say GoFundMe does not fund ransom.
