Mudavadi: There’s no budget to pay Sh150m blood money for Kenyan on death row in Saudi
Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi has said that the government has no budget provision to pay the Sh150 million blood money for a Kenyan national who is being held in Saudi Arabia.
Mr Stephen Munyakho, a Kenyan national who is facing execution in Saudi Arabia in the coming months might end up being executed if Kenyans of goodwill will not come together and raise the amount needed, according to the Prime CS.
Appearing before the Senate plenary on Wednesday, Mr Mudavadi said that the state is seeking to reduce the amount he said that the execution was halted following the Ministry’s intervention.
Munyakho was found guilty of manslaughter and has been deferred the complainants continue to demand blood money for more than a decade now.
Prime CS Mudavadi said that he met with Munyakho’s family, who are struggling to raise the blood money.
“I wish to state that a few weeks ago, I officially wrote to the foreign minister of Saudi Arabia, intervening on behalf of Mr Munyakho. The execution was deferred and did not take place,” said Mudavadi.
“Despite this reprieve, the deceased’s family still demands a compensation sum of Sh150 million. Munyakho’s family has raised about Sh10 million and continues to seek more funds,” Mudavadi told the Senate.
In May, Principal Secretary for Foreign Affairs Korir Sing’oei in a statement said that the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia had agreed to the Kenyan request to suspend the execution of Stephen Bertrand Munyakho to allow further negotiations.
Munyakho was set to be executed on Wednesday, May, 15 this year for the murder of his colleague identified as Abdul Halim Mujahid Makrad Saleh on April 9, 2011.
”I am deeply grateful to inform you that authorities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have kindly granted our request to postpone the impending execution of Stephen Munyakho (now known as Abdulkareem), to allow for further negotiations between all parties,” Mr Sing’oei said then.
He said the Kenyan government was pegging on the cordial relationship it has with Saudi Arabia to resolve the matter, noting that religious leaders will spearhead the negotiations.
”As we devise strategies to bring this matter to a more acceptable conclusion, and thereby giving both families the closure they so urgently need and deserve, we shall continue to lean on the warm and solid friendship that we have with our Saudi partners, as well as on the goodwill of all Kenyans.
The troubles facing Mr Munyakho started in 2011 when he had an altercation with Abdul Halim Mujahid Makrad Saleh whom he worked with in a warehouse.
An alleged scuffle would later lead to the death of Halim and years later, Munyakho was found liable.
The Yemeni family from the deceased side had initially demanded Sh400 million compensation but the exchange deal was later scaled to Sh150 million.