Saudi Court Sentences Kenyan Domestic Worker Esther Wanja Muthoni to 100 Lashes and One Year of Banishment

A Saudi criminal court has sentenced a Kenyan domestic worker to 100 lashes and a year of banishment for having sex outside marriage, after she gave birth to a son in Riyadh last year, The New York Times reported. ⠀ Esther Wanja Muthoni, 40, was convicted in October 2026 by a three-judge panel. “I don’t deserve this,” she told the newspaper. In an earlier interview, she said she feared she could not endure the lashes. ⠀ Muthoni gave birth to her son, Abudy, in August 2025 while working legally in Saudi Arabia. After police questioned her about the pregnancy, she lost access to staff housing and spent time sheltering at a gas station with other migrant mothers. She has been trying to return to Kenya with her child for more than a year. ⠀ Court records reviewed by the newspaper showed no indication that she had legal representation, although she was provided with an interpreter. The judgment also did not indicate whether authorities pursued the child’s father, an Egyptian man who had left Saudi Arabia. ⠀ Muthoni, a mother of five, chose not to appeal because she feared further delays in returning home. Her Kenyan travel documents have since expired, and it remains unclear when the lashes will be administered or whether she and her son will be able to leave. ⠀ The banishment sentence does not necessarily mean deportation: under Saudi rules, a person may instead be ordered to relocate to another city within the kingdom. ⠀ Saudi Arabia announced restrictions on flogging sentences in 2020, but exceptions remain for offenses carrying specified punishments under Islamic law. The Saudi and Kenyan governments did not respond to the newspaper’s requests for comment.