At least 31 Somali nationals arrested in Kenya, Somalia's al-Shabab emulates the Taliban

Police in the Kenyan coastal town of Kwale have unearthed a major human trafficking syndicate involving Somali nationals who had been hidden at a holding ground in a remote village and were in transit to South Africa.The arrests were made after some 31 youthful Somalis were found holed in a remote village house in Milalani, Msambweni area where they had allegedly been abandoned as the organizers of the intricate cartel planned to get more of their colleagues from other parts of the country.Kwale Police chief Richard Muguia confirmed the arrests on Sunday. The two other Somalis, ages 47 and 57 and suspected to be part of the mastermind in the syndicate, were also arrested on Friday night and are being held at Diani Police Station.Muguai said all the suspects, who only speak Somali, had to use an interpreter to explain details to them, and confessed that they had been ferried to the house in bits and entered in Kenya via Garissa with stopovers in Nairobi and Mombasa. "The group said they were facilitated to move near exit points, like now in Msambweni, we have Vanga and Shimoni, so they were expected to leave the country via illegal routes, and through the use of boats," Muguia said.The officer said the suspects, who will be charged in court on Monday, paid around 200 U.S. dollars to ensure they are taken to South Africa to allegedly to allegedly secure promising jobs.In what could be seen as one of the most advanced network of human trafficking and illegal activities, the officer also said the Somalis confirmed some of them had been forced to join the Somalia militant group Al-Shabaab and put on the battle field where they died in large numbers.He said the suspects' facilitators are in Nairobi and Mombasa and ruled out possibilities that Kenyans could be involved, adding that most of them were from Daadab camp in northern Kenya.Other sources claimed they came from Busia-Malaba borders from Uganda, and transported past two major road blocks before being dropped at an area known as Sega, where they wait for buses to pick them up and ferry them to Mombasa and Nairobi. "They came to Mombasa from Garrissa via Nairobi, and then brought to Mombasa by bus, they crossed the ferry like any normal passenger and their facilitator waits for them on the other side of the ferry after which they are hidden in an area next to an exit point," said the source who did not want to be named.But Maguia said the suspects were waiting for the high tide for them to cross over to other countries via illegal routes and porous borders. "It is a big syndicate since the suspects do not even carry any documents; we expect to charge them with being in the country illegally, and then be repatriated back to their country," he said.The incident came barely a week after 89 Ethiopian aliens were arraigned in a Nairobi court and pleaded guilty to charges of being in the country illegally.The Ethiopians were arrested when the police raided a residential house in the outskirts of Nairobi early Wednesday and arrested 89 illegal Ethiopian immigrants.In June, some 44 Ethiopians were arrested under similar circumstances in Ngong town, about 20 km north of Nairobi as they prepared to travel to South Africa.

Source: Xinhua
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