Kenya Deports 16 Somalis

The Kenyan government has deported at least sixteen Somali men that have crossed over the border into Somalia, clan elders in the border town of Dhoobley confirmed on Saturday.According to Hajji Mohamed Yusuf an elder in the city, the sixteen Somalis were brought on the Kenyan side of the border aboard on a Kenyan military vehicle and then were told to cross the border over into the Somali side."The men aged between 19-27 years are now in Dhoobley and we will help their safe return to Mogadishu from where they had fled" the elder said during a telephone conversation with Newsblaze.com from the city on Saturday afternoon."The Kenyan police arrested us from East Leigh in Nairobi during a crack down on Somali people living in Nairobi just two weeks ago and we have been held in custody since then" said one of the deported men who identified his name as Yaasiin."They dealt with us badly and they sometimes tortured us" he stated adding that he is calling on those who are now willing to go to Kenya to remain in the country to escape from what he called "humiliation".In Mid January scores of Muslim protestors mainly Somalis demonstrated in the streets of Nairobi demanding the release of a Jamaican Muslim cleric who is in the list of international terrorists held in Kenya. Most of the protestors had carried the black flag of Al shabab, the Al Qaeda proxy in the horn of Africa which has bases in Somalia and that lead to the Kenyan police to arrest hundreds of Somalis including 16 MPS during a crackdown in the aftermath of the violent demonstrations that rocked in the centre of Nairobi about two weeks ago.