40-year-old Kenyan mother of five sentenced to 100 lashes for giving birth outside marriage in Saudi Arabia

• A Saudi court sentenced a 40-year-old Kenyan mother of five to 100 lashes and one year of banishment.

• Her conviction followed an investigation after she gave birth to a child outside marriage.

• The ruling has raised fresh questions about Saudi Arabia's legal reforms and treatment of migrant women.

A Saudi court in October 2026 sentenced a Kenyan domestic worker to 100 lashes and one year of banishment after convicting her of having sex outside marriage, following a case that began when she gave birth to a child in the kingdom.

Esther Wanja Muthoni is a 40-year-old mother of five who travelled to Saudi Arabia to work as a housekeeper and nanny. She became pregnant during a brief relationship with an Egyptian man named Mohamud, who later left the country, according to The Guardian.

Muthoni gave birth to her son, Abudy, in staff accommodation in August 2025. A supervisor discovered her and the newborn and took them to a hospital, where authorities became aware of her case and questioned her about the pregnancy.

Under Saudi Arabia's sharia-based legal system, sex outside marriage is a criminal offence. Hospitals are also required to report unmarried women who give birth, meaning Muthoni's pregnancy triggered a police investigation.

She was detained and questioned about the pregnancy. According to reporting based on court documents reviewed by The New York Times and republished by Punch, Muthoni told investigators that the child's father had already left Saudi Arabia.

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The New York Times reported that sex outside marriage and pregnancy among unmarried women occupy a legal grey area in Saudi Arabia.

In an earlier investigation, the newspaper interviewed several unmarried mothers who said they had faced no legal repercussions, raising questions about why Muthoni was prosecuted. 

Muthoni was eventually released from police custody but remained stranded in Saudi Arabia with her newborn son. 

She was reportedly unable to return to her staff accommodation or secure a place in a shelter. At one point, she lived at a petrol station in Riyadh that had become a meeting point for migrant mothers trying to leave Saudi Arabia with their children.

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She had spent more than a year trying to return to Kenya with Abudy when a three-judge panel in Riyadh found her guilty in October 2026.

Muthoni reportedly had a court translator but no lawyer during the proceedings.

The court sentenced her to 100 lashes under its interpretation of Islamic law and imposed an additional one-year banishment order.

“I am so afraid,” Muthoni told The New York Times in a telephone interview last month. “I don't think I can endure those lashes.” She added, “I don't deserve this.”

Muthoni did not appeal the ruling, saying her main concern was finding a way back to her children in Kenya.

“It is the only way that can take me back home to my children,” she said.

In 2020, the kingdom announced changes to end flogging as a discretionary judicial punishment. However, the reform applied to certain ta'zir offences and did not eliminate flogging in every circumstance.

As The Guardian reported, flogging can still be imposed for certain offences carrying fixed punishments under interpretations of Islamic law.

Rights groups say Muthoni's case also exposes the particular vulnerability of migrant women, whose pregnancies can make them visible to authorities while the men involved may escape scrutiny.

Maryam Aldossari, acting director of the Saudi rights organisation ALQST, described the ruling as “an act of violence” and said Muthoni should be allowed to return to Kenya rather than be punished.

It remains unclear when the 100 lashes will be carried out or whether the banishment order will ultimately allow Muthoni and her son to leave Saudi Arabia.