Police have arrested 104 individuals believed to be Ethiopian nationals after they were found without valid identification documents in their possession in a house in Juja, Kiambu County.
The suspects who were found locked in a three-bedroomed house in the morning of July 12, were arrested following a tip-off by area residents who had noticed a group of suspicious individuals crammed in a house.
The residents notified police that there were suspicious occurrences at the house and that several vehicles went in and out of the residence.
The Ethiopians were arrested by officers led by Juja Sub-county Police Commander Dorothy Migarusha who spoke to the media giving accounts of the arrest.
According to Migarusha, police raided the house early morning and apprehended the individuals who told police they had paid to be transported through the Moyale border but did not say how much they were charged to be ferried to that location.
Migarusha noted that the aliens were estimated to be between the age of 15 and 40 years, and had no identification documents to establish their nationality. Police in Juja are yet to determine who may be behind the suspected human trafficking syndicate.
"We suspect that the suspects are of Ethiopian origin and we suspect that it is a case of human trafficking," Migarusha told members of the press.
Residents of Juja expressed their concerns on the matter, offering their words of sympathy to the young teenagers who were also part of the gang of aliens.
Police Commander Migarusha admitted that despite their successful arrest, the aliens were tight-lipped, and noted that police had not yet determined who might have been the mastermind of the whole operation.
Migarusha also noted that they were seeking to establish who might have been aiding the operation in giving the Ethiopians shelter in the last few days.
Offering a ray of hope in finding the masterminds behind the operation, the police boss noted that they had identified two individuals who cooked food for the alien citizens, citing that piece of information would be the start of uncovering the whole story behind the racket.
Cases of human trafficking have become rampant in the last few years in Kenya, with detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) rescuing eight Eritreans who sneaked into Asia through Kenya in 2019.
A group of 70 women were also rescued from human traffickers by the DCI officers who raided a home care training institution in Kiambu County last year.
