Kenyan Woman to Hang for Selling Drugs in China

The family of the suspect identified as 28 year old Floviance Razan Owino says although she was arrested by Chinese authorities in May 2013, the Kenyan Embassy in China failed to inform them of the arrest for over two years despite having been reportedly informed.

The family only got to know of the arrest recently after a Chinese official called and notified them of their daughter’s pending execution.

Razan left her one and half year old baby under the care of her elder sister in her Ruai, Nairobi home.

She had just dropped out of college at the age of 26 when she cut off communication with her family a week after informing them that she was living with a friend known as Sharon in Nairobi’s Pipeline estate.

She now faces execution at an undisclosed Beijing prison, an announcement that has left her family in tears.

“Can they just give us the body then, if they cannot give her another chance,” said her sister.

Chinese laws on drug trafficking

She says that an anonymous man called her and identified himself as a Chinese government, only to pass a message that her sister will be executed.

The man has since gone out of reach.

Upon receiving the news their mother in Migori suffered a stroke. They tried calling back the Chinese official several times and days in vain.

Razan will be executed or hanged in accordance with the Chinese laws on drug trafficking

According to her family the Kenyan Embassy in Beijing was notified about the arrest but remained mum and a trip to the Foreign Affairs office here in Nairobi bore no fruit.

Responding to the issue, the Kenyan director for diaspora affairs Washington Oloo said, quote:

“I am currently out of the country but we are following up the issue of Floviance Owino’s case in China. The lady has been convicted of drug smuggling related charges whose consequences are severe, attracting the death sentence,” end quote