Nairobi woman to be hanged in China over drug trafficking

Photo courtesy of Nairobi News

The family of Ms Floviance Razan Owino, has, for two years now, spent sleepless nights wondering where she is.

She went missing in May 2013, leaving her one-year-old daughter in Embakasi with her sister.

On Thursday last week, Ms Owino’s sister received a call from China that further aggravated the family’s agony.

Ms Owino, 28, had been convicted of drug-related offences and would face the hangman’s noose in Beijing, about 10,000 kilometres away.

MITUMBA DEALER

Ms Owino, a former second-hand clothes dealer in Nairobi, went to her sister’s house one afternoon and left her daughter there.

“For the next few days, she used to call, saying she was with a friend only known by the name Sharon,” her sister said on Thursday.

The two claimed that they were living in Pipeline Estate and were ‘working hard to make their lives comfortable.’ A few days later, the family tried calling her in vain. She never called back.

On Thursday afternoon last week, her sister was in her house in Harambee Estate, Nairobi when the call from China came.

“The caller informed me that my sister was just left with a few days before she faces the hangman’s noose, and that she had been in custody for two good years,” she said.

At first, she thought it was a joke since she did not have a relative in China.

TRAFFICKING DRUGS

“When the caller told me my sister’s name and details, I was shocked. I was even more shocked when he told me that she had been arrested for trafficking in drugs,” said the sister.

The caller claimed that they got concerned after the Kenyan authorities, even after being briefed, failed to act on the matter nor inform the family.

On Monday, Ms Owino’s sister went to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade’s Diaspora relations office where an officer confirmed the arrest but told her very little could be done because it was too late.

Contacted on Thursday, Mr Washington Oloo, the director of Diaspora Services, said the Kenyan Embassy in Beijing was handling the matter.

“We have been in touch with the family and our mission in Beijing is on the issue. We are following it up,” he said without giving details.

BRING HER BACK

Ms Owino’s family is appealing to the government to help bring her back home.

However, China and Kenya do not have a prisoner-exchange agreement.

Her sister said that the family tried unsuccessfully to get the details of the charges and her trial.

“I do not even know when she is scheduled for hanging. It pains me to even think that my sister could be killed in a foreign country with the notion that we did not care,” she said, adding that had the family been informed earlier, they could have gone to visit her in jail.

Source: Nairobi News