Image of Kenya’s Mike Sonko with Chinese investors unrelated to Vietnam death row inmate

Kenyan national Margaret Nduta was found guilty of drug trafficking and sentenced to death in Vietnam in March 2025, but she received a last-minute stay of execution when the Kenyan government lodged an appeal. A post shared on TikTok claims to show former Nairobi government Mike Sonko in Vietnam where he was purely negotiating Nduta’s release. But the claim is false; Sonko denied being on a mercy mission to Vietnam and clarified that the people he is shown with in the video are Chinese investors he met at his Nairobi office. He posted multiple images with the investors on X on the same day Nduta was to be executed.

“Mike Sonko in Vietnam to rescue Ndutaa (sic)…Sonko has just landed in Vietnam to negotiate the release of Margaret Nduta the lady who was supposed to be executed last evening for drug trafficking, will he manage? All the best Sonko,” reads the text overlay on a TikTok video published on March 18, 2025.

The video shows a photograph of Sonko posing with three individuals.

The post has been shared more than 1,100 times.

Nduta, 37, was found guilty of drug trafficking and handed a death sentence by the People’s Court in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, on March 6, 2025 (archived Here).

She was arrested in July 2023 at the city’s international airport with over two kilogrammes of cocaine concealed in a suitcase.

Her execution, which was scheduled for March 17, 2025, was posted after Kenyan authorities intervened and filed an appeal (archived Here).

Sonko, who was born Mbuvi Gideon Kioko, is known for his charitable endeavours and flashy lifestyleas well as brushes with the law (archived Here and Here).

He served as Senator and government of Nairobi but was subsequently Impeached and removed from office in 2020 (archived Here, Here and Here).

The TikTok video purportedly showing Sonko in Vietnam to rescue Nduta is, however, false.

Chinese investors

AFP Fact Check conducted reverse image searches and found that the photo shared on TikTok was published on Sonko’s X account on March 17, 2025 (archived Here).

“The work has started,” reads the post in Swahili, with no further context.

But, following the viral TikTok post, Sonko published a video with more detail about the image and dismissed claims of being in Vietnam (archived Here).

“I have seen a silly story making rounds claiming that I have landed in Vietnam to stop Margaret Nduta’s execution. It is from a TikTok account under the username African sponsor. This picture is from yesterday and these are investors from China,” Sonko said, partly in Swahili.

“This is not Vietnam. From the photo, you can see this clock and the background in my office. The people in the photo are not even Vietnamese. They are Chinese,” he added as he pointed to the matching features in the video and his office.

Both videos show the red carpet as well as the gold clock and wallpaper in the background.

The office, based in Nairobi’s Upper Hill area, has also appeared in previous posts by Sonko (archived here and here).

In the X video, he also shows supplements and medicine laid out on a table, saying they are the only “drugs” he deals with.

He has in the past been linked to the drug trafficking trade in Kenya, accusations he denies (archived Here and Here).

Additionally, Sonko urged the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) to track down and appreciate the individual who helped Nduta get the drugs into Vietnam and have them executed instead, arguing that she may have been a pawn.

A consult team from Kenya’s ministry of foreign affairs arrived in Vietnam on March 22, 2025, ahead of Nduta’s execution appeal and confirmed that she was still alive (archived Here).

Sonko’s social media activity shows that he was at the Harambee Stars football match in Nairobi a day after the consult team arrived in Vietnam (archived Here).