‘Kenyan seems resigned’

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

KENYAN national Asha Atieno Oguto was crying hard when she, escorted by Bureau of Jail Management and Penology personnel, returned to the Lapu-Lapu City Jail Monday afternoon.

Last Monday, Judge Toribio Quiwag of the Regional Trial Court Branch 27 ordered the 24-year-old mother to serve a life sentence and pay a fine of P3 million for bringing illegal drugs into the country.

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“We comforted her,” said a 48-year-old female prisoner, who identified herself simply as Ate. “We told her not to lose hope.”

Oguto was arrested last Sept. 29 after authorities at the Mactan Cebu International Airport found three kilos of shabu inside her bag.

Yesterday morning, while her fellow prisoners gathered at the jail building’s hallway, Oguto stayed in her cell and refused to come out for media interviews.

The Kenyan mother reads the Bible every day, Ate said. But she has not seen Oguto hold her Bible after the court decision.

“I think there’s no hope for me,” she recalled Oguto saying when she returned from the court last Monday.

Transfer

“You need to be strong for your children,” she told Oguto.

Lapu-Lapu City Jail deputy warden Jonnabelle Roiles said Oguto, the first foreign woman to be detained in the facility, will be transferred to the Correctional Institute for Women in Mandaluyong City.

“We are now processing the papers for her transfer,” she said, adding they are still
awaiting documents from the court.

Asked whether Oguto could be repatriated to Kenya, the 26-year-old jail senior inspector said she is not aware of any extradition treaty between Kenya and the Philippines.

Lawyer Rico Amores, Oguto’s counsel, said they will seek a reversal of the court’s decision and are prepared to go all way to the Supreme Court.

Inspiring

Collector Paul Alcazaren of the Bureau of Customs Port of Mactan yesterday said Oguto’s conviction inspired the BOC to be more alert against illegal drug couriers arriving at the Mactan Cebu International Airport.

Alcazaren said during the 888 News Forum yesterday that Oguto is the second person apprehended for illegal drugs at the airport.

Authorities arrested two Chinese nationals in March last year for carrying three kilos of what was initially identified as ephedrine, a precursor for shabu. The Chinese nationals were later released when a laboratory test declared the substance was not ephedrine.

Oguto had denied knowledge of the drugs in her luggage.

Ate said Oguto has been a good cellmate. “Maayo siya makisama (She gets along well).”

Oguto shares the jail’s facilities with 79 other female prisoners, most of whom were arrested for drug-related cases.

Ate said Oguto is always worried about her two children, both younger than seven years old. She left her children in the care of her brother and his wife.

“She’s worried that her sister-in-law might not be treating her children well,” said Ate, who has been in the jail since March last year after she was charged with human trafficking.

“She told us that when she returns to Kenya, she will bring balls, shoes and clothes for her two children,” Ate said.