A Mandera court has handed Sh50,000 bond to 40 quarry miners security agents accuse of being members of a criminal gang.
In an affidavit, Mandera East subcounty police commander Eric Ng'etich asked the court to repatriate the accused to their counties of birth.
The officer asked the miners to show cause why they should not be returned to their homes.
Ngetich told the court the respondents had been involved in activities likely to cause a breach of the peace and their being in Mandera would jeopardize their security and that of residents.
"That the respondents are so desperate and dangerous as to render them being at large without being monitored by security agents," Ng'etich said.
The officer told the court the suspects might have been involved in other crimes in their home counties and sought refuge in Mandera.
Ngetich said the accused engage in beer drinking sprees at weekends in a Muslim area that does not condone such behaviour.
Their fingerprints have been taken to ascertain whether they have been involved in any crime before.
The accused asked the court to give them more time to settle debts and get money to pay next year's school fees for their children.
They told the court it was only in Mandera where they got good money to cater for their needs but said if the court deemed it right they be repatriated they would honour the directive.
Principal magistrate Peter Areri released them on bond and directed that if found engaged in any offense in future they would be repatriated to their home counties.
