Why Saudi Arabia postponed execution of Kenyan man jailed for 13 years

A Kenyan man due to be executed in Saudi Arabia has had a last-minute reprieve following a large-scale social media campaign.

Stephen Munyakho, son of veteran journalist Dorothy Kweyu, received the death penalty in 2011 following a fatal fight with a colleague in the Gulf nation.

According to the Bring Back Stevo campaign, run by Munyakho’s supporters, both workers “sustained stab wounds” but only Munyakho survived.

Consequently Munyakho was handed the death sentence.

Under Saudi law, a death sentence can be lifted if the family agrees to get compensation instead.

His family back home in Kenya have been attempting to raise the required blood money, which is three-and-a-half million Saudi riyals ($940,000; £750,000), for the deceased’s family.

On Monday, just two days before Munyakho was due to be executed, Kenya’s Principal Secretary for Foreign Affairs said Saudi Arabia had “kindly granted” the government’s request to postpone the death in order to allow for “further negotiations between all parties”.

Korir Sing’Oei wrote on social media platform X: “As we devise strategies to bring this matter to a more acceptable conclusion, and thereby giving both families the closure they so urgently need and deserve, we shall continue to lean on the warm and solid friendship that we have with our Saudi partners, as well as on the goodwill of all Kenyans.”