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By Chris Mgidu
NAIROBI (Xinhua) -- Kenyan police are on
Thursday interrogating 13 Ethiopian nationals after
arresting them at a residential estate in Nairobi in a
security swoop.
Nairobi County Police Commander
Japheth Koome said the Ethiopians, who were arrested on
Wednesday night, would be charged in court later for
being in the country illegally.
Koome said the Ethiopian men had
stayed in a rented house waiting to move out to South
Africa, adding that major manhunt for the smuggler
behind the syndicate was underway.
“We don’t know how they managed to
arrive there but we are pursuing all angles in our
investigations,” Koome said, noting that those
arrested are to be deported to their country after
court processes.
The police said they were tipped of
the presence of the foreigners and that none of them
could speak English or Swahili.
The Ethiopians were believed to have
come in small groups and police are looking for two
women behind their visit to Kenya.
Kenyan police and immigration
officials have decried increased cases in which
Ethiopian nationals are nabbed in the country while on
transit to either Tanzania or South Africa.
Tens of Ethiopian illegal immigrants
are annually arrested in Kenya while on transit. On
several occasions they have been discovered locked up in
congested rooms in Kenyan towns and cities.
The Kenyan authorities have blamed the
vastness of the region for the runaway influx of
foreigners in to Kenya through Moyale on Kenya-Ethiopia
borders. |
