A Chinese court has handed a Kenyan man life sentence after he was found guilty of trafficking drugs.
Simon Wambua Mbuvi, 44, was found guilty of trafficking drugs concealed inside his stomach into Chinese territory by the Chinese Intermediate People’s Court of Guangzhou Municipality in Guangdong Province.
Court documents quoted by Daily Nation showed that a team of three judges, Chief Judge Hu Peng, Wen Fangdao and Huang Jian found Mbuvi had about 947 grammes of cocaine in his stomach thus handing him a life sentence in jail.
The court was told that the suspect who was a farm labourer in Kenya, made a deal with a woman named Brenda alias Fridah for a fee amounting to Sh211,150, without knowing what the deal was all about.
He kicked off his journey from Kenya at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) to China on November 24, and he was to use a connecting flight from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
It is in Ethiopia where he was linked up with other two men who hosted him for short time.
He was then given food and later convinced him to swallow 79 capsules using water and soda. He was then dropped off at the airport where he would board the flight to China with instructions not to consume any food during the flight.
After hitting the ground in China, an X-ray scanner revealed suspected granular items in his stomach.
Evidence tabled in court says Mbuvi’s stomach had unusual foreign matter.
“Customs personnel, through an X-ray machine, found that the inside of his body contained suspected granular items and handed the matter over to the Guangzhou Baiyun Airport Customs Anti-Smuggling Sub-bureau in Guangdong," read part of evidence against Mbuvi as quoted by Nation.
In his defence the man said Brenda forced him to swallow the drugs as part of the deal that was to see him earn Sh211,150. He also said he did not know he had swallowed the drugs.
However, Judges dismissed his defence before ruling that the substance was very harmful to the society in China.
Mbuvi has been given ten days to appeal the ruling.
Since Kenya and China have no arrangement to exchange prisoners, he will be joining 30 other Kenyans languishing in China jails for various crimes.