- The incident happened at Mutithi Shopping Centre.
- Staff at White House Hospital reported that nine accident victims had been brought to their facility by a good Samaritan but eight of them could not speak in national languages
Eight Ethiopians who were being smuggled were arrested at a hospital they had been rushed to after their vehicle was involved in a fatal accident in Mwea, Kirinyaga County.
Two people were killed in the accident, police said.
The group with their Kenyan driver were in a salon car when they were involved in an accident on Saturday, July 27, police said.
The incident happened at Mutithi Shopping Centre.
Staff at White House Hospital reported that nine accident victims had been brought to their facility by a good Samaritan but eight of them could not speak in national languages.
Police officers rushed to the facility and found the said nine victims, one Kenyan having sustained multiple injuries and eight Ethiopian aliens.
The eight were aged between 16 and 20.
It was also established that the said victims were involved in a fatal road accident along the Sagana-Makutano highway in the Riandira area while on board a Toyota Probox which was driven by an unknown driver and motorcycle.
Both the car and motorcycle were heading in the same direction but as a result of the impact, the rider and a pillion succumbed to the injuries on the spot.
The driver of the motor vehicle in which they were travelling managed to flee from the scene.
The victims were offered first aid at the same facility and later transferred to Kerugoya General Hospital where the driver was admitted and the eight aliens who sustained minor injuries were treated and discharged in stable condition and thereafter escorted and booked in at the police station.
They were to be charged and sent back to their country, police said.
These are the latest arrests to be made of Ethiopians in a series of cases of smuggling.
Tens of Ethiopians are smuggled in a worrying trend, officials say.
According to police, most of the aliens from Ethiopia use the Moyale route and try their luck as they head to South Africa and the Middle East oblivious of the dangers ahead.
Tens of the aliens are usually arrested in various places in the country as they wait to be moved to their next destinations.
Officials from the Transnational Organized Crime are conducting joint operations to deal with the issue of human smuggling.
Most of those arrested come to Kenya to seek jobs or are in transit.
What is puzzling is how the immigrants manage to evade many police roadblocks mounted from the Moyale border where they use on their way to Nairobi because they travel in groups.
There are more than 20 roadblocks on the stretch, which raises the seriousness of the security agents taming the practice.
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.