Saudi Court Sentences Kenyan Mother to 100 Lashes After Having a Baby

(Esther Wanja Muthoni with her then newborn. Photo Credit: The New York Times)

A Saudi Arabian court has sentenced Esther Wanja Muthoni, a 40 years old Kenyan domestic worker, to 100 lashes for sex outside marriage after she gave birth in the kingdom.

The sentence was handed down in October after several hearings last summer.

The New York Times reported the story on Tuesday.

Muthoni, a mother of five, came to Saudi Arabia to work legally as a domestic worker through a recruitment company, Maharah Human Resources.

She became pregnant after a brief relationship with an Egyptian man. 

She gave birth in August 2025 at her staff accommodation.

When a supervisor found out, she was taken to hospital, and police later held her for questioning.

She was released, but she was not allowed back into her accommodation or a shelter, so she spent time at a petrol station in Riyadh where migrant mothers gathered.

Along with the lashes, the court gave her one year of banishment.

It is not clear whether she will be deported to Kenya.

Her exit papers have expired, which leaves her future uncertain.

She is still in Saudi Arabia with her one years old son, Abudy, and says she is scared.

She did not appeal, saying she only wants to get home to her other children.

She had no lawyer during the case, only a court interpreter.

Rights campaigners say the punishment breaks international human rights standards and questions Saudi claims of reform.

Saudi Arabia does not have a written penal code, so judges interpret Islamic law when deciding cases, which can lead to very different outcomes.

The newspaper asked the Saudi Gov. the Kenyan Gov. and the Maharah for their side of the story, but none of them replied.