A group of Ethiopians who are in police custody pending their repatriation to their country staged a hunger strike at the Athi River police station.
They had been arrested on August 26 in Athi River and taken to court where a court ordered their repatriation.
Police said the group had been found unlawfully confined in a residential house whose owner is yet to be established.
The suspects escaped from the house after they broke the main door and window panes and then ended up loitering in the area before they were arrested.
They have been detained at Mavoko SNP police station pending processing for repatriation by the immigration officials.
On September 11, 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 officers at the station said the group threatened not to take meals until they were repatriated.
The aliens continued to stage a hunger strike on Tuesday amid calls to hasten the process of removing them from the station.
Police said the group looked too weak and vulnerable following the hunger strike and feared for the worst.
This is the latest such group to stage a hunger strike to force their fast repatriation.
A similar incident had taken place in March 2023.
The group was later repatriated.
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.
As part of efforts to deal with the menace, an Ethiopian national was sentenced to 31 years in prison for trafficking 12 fellow Ethiopian immigrants in Nairobi.
Yibekal Gatachew alias Adinan Mohamed Galano was sentenced by a Kahawa West Law Court on September 7, 2023, following his arrest on November 3, 2021, in Ngumo estate, Nairobi.
During the arrest, 12 Ethiopian nationals were found emaciated and chained in a room as they waited to be repatriated to a different country while headed for South Africa.
Gatachew was also sentenced to an additional year for acquiring a fake document.
This was after he was found with a fake alien identity card.
The immigrants were later repatriated to Ethiopia.
