This archive report was first published on 23 August 2019.
On November 25, 2018, Simon Wambua Mbuvi, a 44-year-old church official from Nairobi's Chokaa, was arrested in Guangzhou, China, for trafficking cocaine. The life sentence handed down by the Chinese court has left his family and friends reeling.
According to his friends, Alfred Omondi and Peter Ngolo, Mbuvi was going through a tough time financially, with rent arrears and school fees to pay. They believe this might have pushed him into the world of drug dealing.
"He was very broke and jobless," said Omondi in an interview. "He had rent arrears, not to mention school fees to pay."
Mbuvi's wife, Anne Safari, 39, has had to take on menial jobs to make ends meet. The couple has three children, and since Mbuvi's arrest, their lives have become increasingly difficult.
"We are living only by the grace of God," Safari said in a phone interview. "We sleep hungry on some days. He was our only hope."
Court documents reveal that Mbuvi was part of a network of traffickers, including a woman named Fridah, who helped him get a passport and arranged a meeting with the people who gave him the cocaine to swallow.
"He was going through some difficulties," said Otieno. "I believe that's what somebody took advantage of."
Now, Mbuvi's friends and family are pleading with the Kenyan authorities to bring him home to serve his jail term, if not negotiate his release.
