Simon Wambua Mbuvi, 44, who was on July handed a life sentence by a Chinese court has haunted his friends, especially his wife.
Mbuvi was found guilty of trafficking cocaine to which he had swallowed 79 capsules and upon landing in Guangzhou from an Ethiopian Airlines flight on November 25, 2018, he was immediately arrested by Chinese officers.
His family since then has been haunted by the sentence their breadwinner had suffered, to which his wife Ann Safari revealed during an interview by Nation on Thursday that upbringing of the three children they had is an uphill task to her.
"We are living only by the grace of God. We sleep hungry on some days. He was our only hope,” said Safari.
Ms Ann who was unaware of his husband's China trip further noted that their search for Mbuvi bore no fruits after he disappeared for some time.
"I didn’t know what he was going to do in China. When he went silent, I kept looking for him, with my efforts bearing little fruit. Never mind that I could hardly raise the fare to go to government offices,” added Ms Safari.
She was later conducted by Foreign Affairs ministry informing her that her husband had been arrested and would later be charged by Chinese Intermediate People’s Court of Guangzhou Municipality.
According to friends who were close to him, lack of a job to feed the family and pay school fees might have made Mbuvi join the trafficking business.
“He was very broke and jobless. He had rent arrears, not to mention school fees to pay,” said Mr Omondi one of his closest ally.
Mbuvi's friends have pleaded with the government to negotiate his release or otherwise brought to Kenyan prison to serve the sentence.