Editor's Review

“It was a salary-related fight. I was supposed to go and collect my salary, but he was not willing to let me go."

Stephen Munyakho, a Kenyan man who spent 14 years on death row in Saudi Arabia, has opened up about the events that led to his conviction. 

Speaking on Wednesday, July 30, during an interview, Munyakho revealed that a dispute over his salary sparked the fatal fight with his Yemeni colleague Abdi Halim.

He explained that he was supposed to collect his salary, but Halim was not willing to allow him to go and collect it.

“It was a salary-related fight. I was supposed to go and collect my salary, but he was not willing to let me go.

“I ended up getting angry, and he used words that were not very good, and I could not take them,” he recounted.

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File image of Stephen Munyakho and his mother, Dorothy Kweyu.

Munyakho noted that Halim was the one who started the fight and stabbed him in the hand and thigh.

He also noted that the knife belonged to the deceased, and he had it as office stationery at their workplace

“The knife was his, after he used it on me, I used it on him,” Munyakho stated.

He went on to say Halim’s death was not caused directly by the stab wounds, but delay in getting medical attention.

“The main cause of his death was not from the stabbing; the doctor’s report says that he delayed going to the hospital, and he lost a lot of blood. It was just a mistake,” Munyakho explained.

The incident occurred in 2011, and Munyakho was initially convicted of manslaughter in October that year. However, in June 2014, a Shariah court elevated the sentence to the death penalty.

In 2019, Halim's family agreed to a compensation of 10 million Saudi riyals (approximately Ksh352.2 million), which was subsequently reduced to 3.5 million riyals (about Ksh129 million) in November 2023.

Due to diplomatic interventions by the Kenyan government, Munyakho's execution was postponed multiple times to allow for the settlement of the blood money.

The initial execution date of May 13, 2024, was extended to November 26, 2024, and later postponed by another year to November 26, 2025.

Munyakho was released from prison on Tuesday, July 22, after the required Ksh129 million blood money was fully paid.

He arrived in Kenya on Monday, July 29, and was received by family members, friends, and government officials, led by Foreign Affairs PS Korir Sing'Oei.