Kenyan police nab 29 Ugandan over human smuggling racket

Kenyan police said Wednesday they are interrogating 29 Ugandans who were arrested on separate incidents in Nairobi on Tuesday night over human smuggling racket.

Nairobi County Police Commander Japheth Koome said seven of the suspects were arrested in Kayole while 22 others were arrested in Kasarai residential estates in Nairobi.

"We are going to arraigned them in court once investigations haven completed," Koome said and decried rising cases of human smuggling from Uganda to the Middle East countries.

Koome said the Ugandan suspects were nabbed after the police received intelligence that the aliens were looking for greener jobs.

"They said the people lacked travel documents and were on their way to the Middle East where they had been promised jobs. Let them know they will not use this as their route to the area. Let them get proper documents," he said.

The police commander added they are holding the man believed to be behind the illegal immigration and called on other Ugandan nationals hiding in Nairobi to surrender.

The police have on several occasions rounded up dozens of illegal immigrants especially from Ethiopia, Somalia and Eritrea who have been discovered locked up in congested rooms in Kenyan towns and cities but the trade continues to thrive even as many were repatriated.

The immigrants are said to be using Kenya as their transit route to other countries such as South Africa or other European countries.

Many aliens from regional countries have managed to sneak in the county with the help of brokers after paying hundreds of shillings.

But refugee rights organizations and aid agencies have blamed poverty in Africa for the rising cases of human trafficking.

They said that the huge supply of labour both skilled and unskilled makes them vulnerable to criminal syndicates. Endit