2 Ethiopians sentenced for being in Kenya illegally
Ethiopian nationals Maba Tasdo and Todo Gabre at the ISIOLO LAW COURTS on January 28, 2022. They were jailed for one year each for being in Kenya illegally.
Two Ethiopian immigrants arrested in September were jailed on Friday for one year each after pleading guilty to being in Kenya illegally.
Maba Tasdo and Todo Gabre were arrested on September 24 at the Merti junction in Isiolo County at around 1am with two Kenyans, Abdi Dima and Jibe Dawa, who were allegedly ferrying them to Nairobi.
A shootout ensued between a security team and occupants of another vehicle that was following the one carrying the two foreigners when the driver of the latter refused to slow down on being flagged down by officers.
At their sentencing, the two, who admitted to being in Kenya without valid passes, appealed to the court to consider the five months that they had been in remand and fine them instead of jailing them.
Isiolo Principal Magistrate Evanson Ngigi decried the rise in human smuggling cases in the region, adding that traffickers were enlisting armed militia, who engage security officers in shootouts, risking the lives of Kenyans.
Tame vice
He said a custodial sentence was called for to tame the vice that exposes Kenyans to security threats.
The magistrate allowed the convicts to serve seven months at the Isiolo GK Prison.
Foreigners, police reports show, sneak into the country assisted by Kenyans and some of them turn out to be terrorists on a mission to identify targets for attacks and informants for insurgents such as Al-Shabaab.
Many of them enter via the porous Kenya-Ethiopia border disguised as visitors without the required travel documents, allegedly on a mission to seek jobs in Nairobi.
To evade security agents on the busy highway, smugglers use off-the-highway routes to Merti, where the foreigners are picked up by boda boda riders and taken to Isiolo town. They then travel to Nairobi using matatus.
Security agencies have warned accomplices that they risk having their vehicles forfeited to the State if found ferrying illegal immigrants.
The hearing of the case facing Mr Dima and Mr Dawa will start on February 22.
