Simon Wambua Mbuvi, 44, formerly a farm labourer, has been charged and jailed by a Chinese Court for trafficking drugs into the country.
Two weeks ago, the Chinese Intermediate People’s Court of Guangzhou Municipality, in Guangdong Province, found him guilty of trafficking drugs into Chinese territory, in his stomach.
Court documents obtained by Daily Nation show that Chief Judge Hu Peng and colleagues Wen Fangdao and Huang Jian issued Mbuvi with a life sentence for trafficking approximately 947 grams of cocaine in his stomach.
Mbuvi is set to spend the rest of his life in a Chinese jail, joining 30 other Kenyans languishing in the Asian country for various crimes.
The 44-year-old was not only a first-time traveller to the country but also new in the drug trafficking business.
Mbuvi’s ordeal began on November 25, 2018, after he touched down in Guangzhou on an Ethiopian flight.
He had a visa, a return ticket and an itinerary of what he was to do in China; “buy some items and bring
them back.”
However, his trip had been choreographed by a network of drug kingpins.
Three months before, a woman identified as Breda approached him with an offer of Ksh 211,150 to undertake an assignment for her.
Breda, also known as Fridah, bought the ticket, paid the visa fees and linked him to other people.
However, the cunning Breda did not disclose that Mbuvi would be on an illegal drug delivery assignment.
On November 24, Mbuvi set out for China, where he travelled through Addis Ababa for a connecting flight and was linked to two other men.
His hosts fed him, asked him to rest, later convincing him to swallow 79 capsules using water and soda.
Mbuvi was eventually dropped off at the airport, where he boarded the flight to China under one strict instruction, he was not to eat anything aboard the 12-hour flight.
In China, as he went through the immigration corridors, an X-ray scanner illuminated “suspected granular items”.
The evidence tabled in court also disclosed that Mbuvi’s stomach had unusual foreign matter.
Customs personnel handed Mbuvi over to the Guangzhou Baiyun Airport Customs Anti Smuggling Sub-bureau in Guangdong.
In two days, he had discharged 79 capsules weighing 947.03 grams and while there, satisfying authorities that he was not a drug user himself.
Mbuvi was given 10 days to appeal while still being held in jail.
His passport will be handed back to the Kenyan authorities, however, since the two countries have no bilateral arrangement to exchange prisoners, Mbuvi is set to spend the rest of his life in Chinese prisons.
