In a multiagency operation conducted on February 27, over 200 foreign nationals have been rescued, while two police officers have been arrested and detained in a human trafficking raid.
Officers drawn from the Transnational Organized Crime Unit, the Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DCI) together with the National Police Service, conducted a raid in four different parts of Nairobi's residential areas and managed to arrest the unregistered immigrants believed to have originated from Ethiopia.
The team successfully managed to surround one of the residential areas in Embakasi, Tasia areas, where 132 foreigners with no legal papers.
During the raid, two individuals also managed to jump through the perimeter wall sustaining leg injuries.
However, on further interrogation, they were identified as police officers and were escorted to the DCI headquarters awaiting further investigations.
Meanwhile the owner of the building is still at large.
Elsewhere 37 other non-citizens were also discovered living at a residential house in the Githurai, Kizito Mihoko area.
Consequently, 24 other suspected illegal immigrants were arrested in the Lucky Summer Kasarani area.
The focus of the operation was to combat human trafficking, with Nairobi being a hot spot for Ethiopians in transit.
"DCI arrived at our residentials, entered that house that house after one hour, we saw a group of people getting out," one of the eyewitnesses commented.
The group rescued were mainly aged between 12 to 35 and several were in poor health due to the bad conditions they were found living in.
They were escorted to Embakasi Police Station awaiting reparation.
On January 6, a police officer also nabbed a group of 47 Ethiopians who were on their way to South Africa in Makindu, Machakos county.
Mkaindu Police boss, Jashon Polloh, confirmed that indeed the groups lacked legal documentation demonstrating their status as immigrants and had not followed the appropriate procedures.
