Police arrest 16 foreigners for being in Kenya illegally

A view of Bondo Town. [Photo: Isaiah Gwengi/Standard]

Police in Bondo have arrested 16 Congolese in an operation as the purge on illegal immigrants takes effect in the country.

Bondo OCPD Harriet Kinya said the foreigners were found operating businesses without proper documentation.

“Following the ongoing operation on illegal immigrants as per the directive given by the Interior CS Fred Matian’gi, we arrested 16 immigrants, most of them operating different businesses and living in the town without the required documents,” said Kinya.

In the new directive, foreign nationals will be required to carry with them their identification documents for inspection and produce them whenever asked to do so by police and the multi-agency team on illegal immigrant crackdown

She added that the immigrants have been ferried to Kisumu pending vetting by a multi-agency task force.

The area police boss told The Standard that many of the foreigners, some who run small scale businesses such as barbershops, came as students especially from neighbouring countries, and settled without acquiring the proper documentation.

“We are advising that even those with work permits to re-apply to allow the Government to take stock of the foreign workforce in Kenya,” said the OCPD.

The crackdown which comes a few days to the Inspector General of Police Mr Joseph Boinnet's visit in the county, has seen the number of aliens caught up in a rush to verify their document status increasing.

A source at the immigration office said those arrested used brokers to acquire the documentation.

The source, who did not wish to be named, stated that the receipts produced by those arrested were fake.

“This has made the entire documentation invalid hence they were required to apply for the permit afresh through the right channels,” said the source.

In June, the government issued a notice to foreigners in Kenya to visit immigration offices to verify and renew their work permits.