Police have arrested 131 Ethiopian nationals for being in the country illegally at Athi River in Machakos County.
Athi River Subcounty police commander Anderson Njagi said the aliens were flashed out from a rented house where they were found hiding at Sabaki estate within Athi River town suburbs.
Njagi said the operations conducted on Friday night involved officers from Kenya National Police Service from Athi River Sub County and Transnational Crime detectives from the DCI headquarters.
“The intelligence-led operations involving Transnational Crime detectives from the DCI headquarters and ourselves led to the arrest of 131 Ethiopians hidden at residential premises within Sabaki estate,” Njagi on Saturday told the Star by phone.
He said all those arrested were men without any identification documentation and legal documents permitting them to be in the country.
They were found to be in the country illegally.
Njagi said a white car, a Toyota Land Cruiser was recovered from the premises during the operations.
He said the suspects were held at Athi River, Kyumbi and Machakos police stations awaiting to be arraigned in court on Monday.
Independent sources hinted to the Star that the suspects were living together, sharing rooms under pathetic conditions.
“They slept on mattresses spread on the floor with utensils scattered all over. The men cooked alone under unhygienic conditions exposing themselves to lots of health risks,” the source privy to the operations but not allowed to speak to the press told this reporter.
Njagi said they suspected the arrested men were conduits of human trafficking.
“We are investigating to see if we can get to the person behind the suspects’ being in the country. We suspect it’s a conduit of human trafficking,” Njagi said.
The incident happened exactly a month after police arrested over 1,500 Pakistanis nationals in Nairobi on September 30.
The over 1,500 male individuals believed to be on transit to Saudi Arabia and Doha were arrested at Waiyaki Real Gardens along Waiyaki Way.
Officials from the Immigration Department vetted their documents before they were escorted by police to board buses to ferry them into various hotels where they were quarantined for 14 days before travelling to their final destinations.
Edited by D Tarus
