Rogue police, bus crew mint cash from illegal immigrants

By PAUL WAFULA

twitter handle @paulwaf

Transport operators and traffic police officers are major beneficiaries of the ‘lucrative trade’ of facilitating movement of illegal immigrants’ in the country.

On averege, bus crew earn between Sh20,000 and Sh30,000 to transport an alien without valid travel documents to Nairobi.

The illegal immigrants are reffered to as as Mbuzi (goat) in parts of North Eastern and Coast regions. Along the major towns located on the Kenya Somalia border, an immigrant is reffered to as Som, the short version of a Somali.

Some illegal immigrants just want to use Kenya as a gateway to Sudan, Mozambique, South Africa and other destinations.

Insiders say the most popular route for the aliens from Somalia is Garissa-Mombasa, where surveillance is poor and there numerous foot paths. Once in Mombasa, they take a bus to Nairobi.

But there are others who travel to Nairobi using the Garissa Nairobi route. They come in buses, private cars or even lorries ferrying cattle to slaughter houses or other goods to Nairobi.

Depth of graft

However, it is the ease with which the aliens pass police road blocks that exposes the depth of corruption on the routes.

Mr Gwadi Omar, a resident at Ifo 1 camp, tells us how illegal immigrants pay Sh20,000 to touts of popular buses on the route to be transported to Nairobi.

This money is shared with police officers manning the road blocks on the highway. Omar lives a double life. He is a refugee when it is time to receive monthly food rations or when he needs free medical services extended to asylum seekers. And is Mohammed Abdinoor, as a citizen of Kenya and posses the national ID card and the refugee identification card. This, according to him, is not illegal. He asks us which personality suits our assignment; the refugee or the Kenyan. We decide to settle on the refugee status because this is what he introduced himself to us first.

“Once you part with the money, the conductor will take care of the traffic police officers on the way,” Omar says.

Sometimes the refugees may be required to alight at a short distance before the bus gets to a ‘hostile’ roadblock.

They then proceed on foot or board motorbikes as the bus is cleared by the police. Once they are safely past the road block, the bus will pick them up and continue with the journey.

Police officers earn an average of Sh2,000 to let one head through the road blocks.

Once in Mombasa, they book into a hotel or hang around town, while keeping a low profile before picking a direct bus to Nairobi.

“They prefer to use the Mombasa route to Nairobi because there are no police checks that require passengers to show national Identifcation cards. Most aliens prefer to travel at night,” a bus driver familiar with the operations said. Once in Nairobi, the illegal immigrants start hunting for the identification documents.

“After they secure the documents, some even opt to travel further upcountry where they attract lesser scrutiny to start their lives,” the driver added.

Investigations also revealed that there is a huge number of Kenyans registered as refugees caught up in the ID scandal as they cannot get the vital document using the legal means.

At Ifo refugee camp, about half an hour from Dadaab, we meet Kenyans living a double life.

Another irony of the ID card story is that the legitimate Kenyans who should ideally get the ID’s with ease are forced to go to unimaginable lengths to get the document, including replacements.

“Kenyans do not get ID’s but refugees and illegal immigrants get them just because they are more wired to pay for them,” Omar says, adding that he walks around with a coloured copy of his original ID card, which he shows us, so that he is not subjected to the painful exercise of getting a new one.

“It is very hard to get an ID even for those of us who are legitimate citizens. I walk around with a passport to avoid the nightmare of having to look for a replacement in case I lose it,” he adds.

Mr Aden Noor Ali, also a local, is married to a refugee. But for him he would rather cross the border with his family than be split. “I am a Kenyan, but when the time comes, I will choose to go to Somalia. I cannot allow my wife to go alone,” he says. But those who want to settle know that without an identification document, their life would be impossible.

An employee of Kenya Red Cross Society, told The Standard on Saturday how he recently witnessed first-hand an alien being transported to Nairobi.

The employee, based in Dadaab, narrated how the illegal immigrant paused as a tout in the bus or a mechanic at various police road blocks to get to Nairobi.

Marry a refugee

“He could alight as the first person every time the bus was stopped at a road block. Then he would quickly move to the rear and pretend to be checking the tyres or the boot. Meanwhile, the real tout would be engaging the police and once the bus was released, he would jump on it and we proceeded,” he said. He also revealed how one of his senior bosses, who had married a refugee, travelled to Nairobi and bought her an ID.

“He took leave and travelled as soon as the police rounded his wife up during the recent operation at Garissa. He was back after several weeks with the ID and the wife who was facing repatriation was released,” he said. Another refugee at the camp who requested anonymity told us how his friend paid Sh100,000 and got the ID.

“I do not know exactly how he did it, but he told me if I get the money, I talk to him. So at the moment, I am still looking for the money. I have witnessed a conductor being given money in cash to ferry immigrants to Nairobi,” the refugee who also plans to try out his luck should he raise the money said.