Venezuelan Diplomat Faces Murder Charges in Kenya
Dwight Sagaray’s rise in the Venezuelan foreign service was almost as swift as his downfall
Within days of being hired at the Foreign Ministry in July 2010, Mr. Sagaray was sent to Kenya. A short time later, he was promoted to the No. 2 post at the embassy in Nairobi. Then, after the head of the diplomatic mission left the country in May amid sexual harassment charges, Mr. Sagaray, 35, suddenly became his country’s top representative in Kenya. He even moved into the ambassador’s residence, according to news accounts.
But in mid-July, officials in Caracas sent a veteran diplomat, Olga Fonseca Giménez, to take over as chargé d’affaires in Nairobi. Twelve days later, she was found strangled to death. The Kenyan authorities quickly took Mr. Sagaray into custody and charged him with murder.
It seemed a jaw-dropping case of diplomatic foul play, which the police said was motivated by “jostling for positions in the embassy.” But almost as stunning as the gruesome murder itself — Ms. Fonseca was bound hand and foot and a rope was tied around her neck, according to local news reports — was the rapidity with which Venezuelan officials stripped Mr. Sagaray of the diplomatic immunity that could have protected him.
