Police are holding 24 Ethiopian nationals who had been abandoned in a bush in Merti area, Isiolo County.
According to police, the group walked to Biliqo Patrol Base in the area after realizing their smuggler had abandoned them.
The group told police they were on transit to South Africa after crossing to Kenya at the Kenya-Ethiopia border with the assistance of smugglers.
This is a common trend in the area amid a crackdown to address the menace of human smugglers and traffickers.
On Sunday May 5 morning, police in Biliqo Patrol Base said that a group of 24 Ethiopians turned themselves to the police, after being abandoned in the nearby bushes.
They were later searched, interrogated and placed in custody, awaiting arraignment for the offense of being unlawfully present in Kenya, police said.
Police said they are looking for the smugglers behind the incident.
These are the latest arrests to be made on Ethiopians in a series.
Tens of Ethiopians are smuggled in a worrying trend, officials say.
According to police, most of the aliens from Ethiopia use the Moyale route and try their luck as they head to South Africa and Middle East oblivious of the dangers ahead.
Tens of the aliens are usually arrested in various places in the country as they wait to be moved to their next destinations.
Officials from the Transnational Organized Crime are conducting joint operations to deal with the issue of human smuggling.
Most of those arrested come to Kenya to seek jobs or are on transit.
What is puzzling is how the immigrants manage to evade many police roadblocks mounted from the Moyale border where they use to Nairobi because they travel in groups.
There are more than 20 roadblocks on the stretch, which raises the seriousness of the security agents taming the practice.
As part of efforts to deal with the menace, an Ethiopian national was sentenced to 31 years in prison for trafficking 12 fellow Ethiopian immigrants in Nairobi.
Yibekal Gatachew alias Adinan Mohamed Galano was sentenced by a Kahawa West Law Court on September 7, 2023 following his arrest on November 3, 2021 in Ngumo estate, Nairobi.
Most of those nabbed are usually repatriated to their country, police and immigration officials say.
