Police in Garissa have unearthed an ID card syndicate. The syndicate involves brokers who transport non-Kenyans from the refugee camps and other parts of Northern Kenya to Nairobi.
This was discovered yesterday after four refugees from Somlia were arrested from a bus at the Tana bridge on their way to Nairobi. The four women were found with Kenyan ID cards. Garissa county commissioner Rashid Khator said the bus conductor was also arrested.
He said preliminary investigations showed that the four refugees from Dadaab were given the ID cards by the conductor. “After thorough interrogation by our officers, the four confessed that they paid some money for the service,” Khator said.
He said the bus conductor will give them more information on the illegal business and help them arrest others involved in it. Khator asked bus owners to prevent their workers from engaging in human trafficking.
“Bus owners should be part and parcel of security measures. Our being secure largely depends on how disciplined they are in carrying out their duties. We don’t want non-patriotic Kenyans willing to be compromised at the expense of our security,” he said.
This is not the first time foreigners and refugees have been arrested at the Tana bridge on their way to Nairobi. Early this month, a group of refugees from Dadaab were arrested walking on foot in the bush after they had been dropped by a bus that they were trevelling in a few kilometres from a police roadblock.
Forty Kenyan ID cards were recovered from the refugees. Police have blamed the foreigners and refugees for most of the terror attacks that have been witnessed in various parts of country. During a police swoop a month a go at Eastleigh in Nairobi, many foreigners and refugees were arrested.
