• On March 2, 2023, the group refused to take their meals, saying they wanted to be taken back to their country.
• They said it had taken too long to process their movement out of the country.
Image: DCI/TWITTER
A group of Ethiopians who are in police custody pending their repatriation to their country staged a hunger strike causing panic.
The 21 aliens had been arrested on February 17, 2023, in Juja, Kiambu and taken to court where a court ordered their repatriation.
And since then, officials say they have been processing the planned repatriation.
On March 2, 2023, the group refused to take their meals saying they wanted to be taken back to their country.
They said it had taken too long to process their movement out of the country.
Police at the Juja police station said the group had been taken there by officers from DCI’s Transnational Organized Crime Unit pending further arraignment and repatriation.
“We have done communication for profiling of the men in vain. This has caused pain,” said an officer at the station.
The aliens continued to stage a hunger strike at the weekend amid calls to hasten the process to remove them from the station.
Police said the group looked too weak and vulnerable following the hunger strike and feared for the worst.
Head of Transnational Organized Crime George Mutonya said they are handling the matter to ensure it is solved.
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.
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 come to Kenya to seek jobs or are on transit.
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.