A Kenyan domestic worker in Saudi Arabia has been sentenced to 100 lashes and one year of banishment after giving birth outside marriage. A criminal court in Riyadh convicted Esther Wanja Muthoni, 40, of having sex outside marriage. The New York Times first reported the case. The Star, The Guardian and Pulse Live Kenya carried it on Wednesday.
Muthoni went to Saudi Arabia legally to work as a housekeeper and nanny. According to Pulse Live Kenya, a Saudi company, Maharah Human Resources, recruited her. She became pregnant after a brief relationship with an Egyptian man, who later left the country. She gave birth to her son, Abudy, in staff accommodation in August 2025. A supervisor found her and took her to hospital, where police detained her for questioning.
A three-judge panel heard the case over several hearings. According to the reports, she had a court translator but no lawyer. Pulse Live Kenya said that as an indigent defendant she was entitled to state-sponsored legal help. The court applied an interpretation of Islamic law that prescribes 100 lashes for sex outside marriage. No case was brought against the child's father.
After her release, Muthoni was turned away from her staff accommodation and from a shelter. She stayed at a petrol station in Riyadh where migrant mothers gathered. Her employer later housed her, and the Kenyan Embassy issued exit documents. But the pending case kept her in the country, and the documents have since expired. She did not appeal. She told The New York Times it was "the only way that can take me back home to my children." She also said she was afraid and did not think she could endure the lashes.
Rights groups condemned the sentence. Maryam Aldossari of the UK-based group ALQST told The Guardian that the ruling was an act of violence. She said the woman should have been sent back to Kenya. Ekaterina Porras Sivolobova, founder of the migrant rights group Do Bold, said she had been unable to get help from Kenyan authorities for such women. Foreign Affairs PS Korir Sing'Oei responded to the case on Wednesday, People Daily reported.
Saudi Arabia announced an end to flogging as a judicial punishment in 2020. According to ALQST, the reform covered only offences where judges have discretion. It did not cover fixed punishments under Islamic law, such as for adultery. It is unclear when the sentence will be carried out, or whether the banishment means deportation to Kenya. The New York Times said the Kenyan and Saudi governments and Maharah did not respond to requests for comment.