Eleven more Ethiopians were Tuesday night arrested from a house in Kayole, Nairobi, as they waited to be smuggled out to South Africa.
This follows a renewed operation by officials from the Transnational Organized Crime Unit targeting the aliens.
Head of the Transnational Organized Crime Unit George Mutonya said the new group was in a house waiting to be shipped out when they were informed.
The suspects were expected in court on Wednesday to face smuggling charges.
Police who had been tipped off said they are looking for human smugglers behind the incident.
“We urge those coming here to try and use legal methods. They can register as refugees for processing or obtain other legal documents,” Mutonya said.
This comes as a court at Kahawa West ordered the detention of 41 other Ethiopians for six more days to enable police to complete their investigations on human smuggling.
The court ordered that the men be detained at the Kayole police cells while two others a Kenyan and an Ethiopian, be detained at the Muthaiga police cells for six days pending the probe.
The 41 aliens were arrested at Baraka estate in Mihango.
They had been there for four days while waiting to be driven out to the next unknown destination.
"They did not have documents to qualify for their status in the country and were on transit," Mutonya said.
“They had paid for this to happen but the conditions they lived in were bad.”
Dozens of Ethiopians are arrested in the country as they try to use this route to other places like Tanzania, the Middle East and South Africa.
Police and immigration officials have decried increased cases of Ethiopian aliens nabbed in the country while on transit.
Mutonya said the trend is worrying as the number of those being caught is on the rise.
“This is big business for smugglers or traffickers and must be stopped as it is illegal. Those caught are part of a larger human trafficking syndicate operating across the Horn of Africa that is responsible for trading in human beings,” Mutonya said.
Officials from the Transnational Organized Crime are conducting joint operations to deal with the issue of human smuggling.
Tens of Ethiopians are annually arrested in Kenya while on transit and later deported. Most of those arrested also come to Kenya to seek jobs.
What is puzzling is how the immigrants manage to evade many police roadblocks mounted from the Moyale border where they use to Nairobi.
There are more than 20 roadblocks on the stretch, which raises the seriousness of the security agents taming the practice.
