- They said it had taken too long to process their movement out of the country.
- Police officers at the station said the group threatened not to take meals until they were repatriated.
Image: The Star
A group of Ethiopians who are in police custody pending their repatriation to their country staged a hunger strike at the Illasit police station, in Kajiado County.
The 85 men and women had been arrested on February 20 and taken to court in Loitoktok where a court ordered their repatriation.
Police said the group had been found unlawfully confined in a residential house whose owner is yet to be established.
They said they were headed for South Africa for greener pastures.
On February 27, the group refused to take their meals saying they wanted to be taken back to their country.
They said it had taken too long to process their movement out of the country.
Police officers at the station said the group threatened not to take meals until they were repatriated.
The aliens continued to stage a hunger strike on Wednesday and Thursday amid calls to hasten the process of removing them from the station.
Police said the group looked too weak and vulnerable following the hunger strike and feared for the worst.
“This office is requesting your intervention to assist their movement to Nairobi to prevent death in police custody,” police said in an internal memo.
Police said most of them look emaciated and weak due to hunger and dehydration.
“Some are sick and on drugs and we have asked the immigration department to do the necessary and move the group as ordered,” an officer on the ground said.
This is the latest such group to stage a hunger strike to force their fast repatriation.
A similar incident took place in March and September 2023 in Athi River.
The group was later repatriated.
Dozens of Ethiopians are arrested in the country as they try to use this route to other places like Tanzania, the Middle East and South Africa.
Another group of 132 Ethiopians was on Tuesday found in a house in Tasia and taken to court pending repatriation.
Kenya has abolished visa requirements for Ethiopians.
They are however required to fill out the electronic Travel Authorisation (eTA) system before they come to the country.
Police say they are fighting the smuggling and trafficking of the groups from Ethiopia and Eritrea, which is on a rising scale.
More than 500 Ethiopians were in January alone rescued from smugglers. A similar number or more have since been rescued in February, police statistics show.
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.
Yibekal Gatachew alias Adinan Mohamed Galano was sentenced by a Kahawa West Law Court on September 7, 2023, following his arrest on November 3, 2021, in Ngumo estate, Nairobi.
During the arrest, 12 Ethiopian nationals were found emaciated and chained in a room as they waited to be repatriated to a different country while headed for South Africa.
Gatachew was also sentenced to an additional year for acquiring an alleged fake document.