- They said they had been waiting to be moved to their promised destination for nine months
- Such cases have been on the rise amid calls to stop human smuggling.
Image: GEORGE OWITI
At least eight Ethiopians escaped from a house where they had been held in Donholm, Nairobi, and sought police help.
The eight were among 57 Ethiopians who had been in a house in the area for a week when they became impatient.
They had been moved from another house in the city and claimed they have been in Nairobi for nine months waiting in vain to fly to their destination.
They said through a translator they had been confined in two rooms and the conditions therein were unbearable.
Locals spotted them leave the house that they claimed they were being held in against their wish.
The locals later called police who picked the group for processing at the station.
Police said they had arrested one suspect behind the smuggling and the hunt for more was ongoing.
The Ethiopians said they were headed for Middle East for greener pastures.
Nairobi deputy police boss James Mugera said the incident was the latest in a series reported in the recent months.
Last week, detectives from the Transnational and Organized Crime Unit rescued 108 other Ethiopians from a house in Kirigiti, Kiambu county, and said the men are suspected to be victims of human trafficking.
The officers had been informed the victims were in a house in the area before they staged the raid on them. They said the distraught victims aged between 13 and 35 were found crowded in one room.
During the operation, four Kenyans were arrested on suspicion of being part of a larger human trafficking syndicate operating across the Horn of Africa that is responsible for trading in human beings.
Dozens of Ethiopian nationals have in the past weeks been arrested in parts of Nairobi and its environs for being in the country illegally.
The victims did not have documents to qualify their status in the country and were on transit, officials said.
Immigration officials said more than 300 Ethiopians have in the past weeks been arrested and plans were ongoing to deport them to their country.
Dozens of Ethiopians are arrested in the country as they try to use this route to other places like Tanzania, Middle East and South Africa.
Police and immigration officials have decried increased cases of Ethiopian aliens nabbed in the country while on transit.
Officials from the Transnational Organized Crime Unit are conducting joint operations to deal with human smuggling.
What is puzzling is how the illegal immigrants manage to evade many police roadblocks mounted from the Moyale border to Nairobi.