Pubdate: Fri, 24 Nov 2006
Source: Kenya Times (Kenya)
Copyright: 2006 Kenya Times Media Trust
Contact:  http://www.kentimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2936
Author: Nzau Musau

DONDE GIRL FACES DEATH OVER DRUGS

"The Whole Family Is Devastated With The Unfolding  Events"

ONE of the two Kenyan female students facing death  sentence if
convicted for drug trafficking offences is  a daughter of former Gem
MP Joe Donde.

But last evening, a distraught Donde maintained her  daughter's
innocence and insisted that she could be a  victim of circumstances.

Mr. Donde, whose daughter Deborah, a second year  Architecture student
in a Kualar Lumpur university to  be charged with trafficking in large
quantities of  marijuana, claimed that she and two other colleagues
had only gone visiting a fellow Saudi student south of  the capital
when police came calling in the house and  seized the four kilogram
marijuana haul.

Government Spokesman Dr. Alfred Mutua said Kenyan  diplomats in
Malaysia and neighbouring countries had  taken up the matter. "We are
yet to be fully furnished  with enough details, but our envoys there
are following  up the matter," said Dr. Mutua during his weekly press
briefing.

"She and two other girls had gone to visit fellow Saudi  students and
while in the rooms, police came in and  discovered 4 kilos of
marijuana and took them along",  Donde said.

Malaysian law, under which they will be charged, sets a  mandatory
death sentence for anyone, including  foreigners, found in possession
of 200 grams or more of  marijuana whose minimum sentence with Kenyan
law is 10  years imprisonment.

The law, which was introduced in 1981 to stem the  lucrative trade and
handling of the drug, has since  seen over 100 people hanged for the
offence.

The former MP, who is credited with the Donde Bill that  proposed for
the regulation of bank interest rates,  said the whole family was
devastated with the unfolding  events.

He confirmed that he had talked to her "devastated"  daughter on phone
from the cells and that her mother  had flown to Kualar Lumpur to give
her moral support  because she is innocent.

"We shall be in a position to know the full truth when  her mother
arrives in Kuala Lumpur," Donde, who is  scheduled to address a press
conference today morning  told the Kenya Times on telephone.

The former MP said her daughter was poised to come over  for holiday
and that they had already sent her air  ticket before the incident
happened last weekend.

Deborah is the younger sister of Eva who has  represented Kenya in
swimming at the Olympics and All  Africa Games.

International news agencies had on Wednesday reported  that two Kenyan
female students studying in Malaysia  could be hanged following their
arrest last weekend  with huge quantities of Marijuana in their
student  apartments.

The news agencies did not, however, give their names  and only
indicated that they were aged between 18 and  22 and are students at a
higher learning institution in  a town south of Kuala Lumpur.

They had been seized alongside two other students--one  from Eritrea
and another from Saudi Arabia--in a town  south of the country's
capital of Kuala Lumpur where  they are learning, the paper said.

"They were arrested in a special operation last weekend  by our
district police narcotics officers", a Mr.  Zahedi Ayob, a district
police chief in which the town  of Cyberjaya falls was quoted as saying.

According to the news agency which broke the story, the  quantity of
the drug haul netted with the four is  enough to have them face the
death penalty under the  Malaysian law. Ayob is also said to have
confirmed that  indeed, the evidence to charge them was available.

The police chief who said the arrests were made  following a tip off,
said the students were being  detained until today when investigations
and evidence  assembling is expected to be completed.

Thereafter, they would be formally charged on drug  trafficking
charges.

The street value of the four kilo haul which was found  packed in four
slabs and various small plastic packets  is estimated to be about Sh.
140,722. Police are said  to be investigating the source of the
supply, how they  came to possess it and what it was intended for.
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MAP posted-by: Derek