Police rescued 59 Ethiopian nationals, including a four-year-old child, in a multi-agency operation targeting suspected human smuggling in Marsabit County.
The operation, conducted on Saturday, October 24, 2026, also led to the arrest of a man suspected of harbouring the victims at a residential house in Jirime Location, Marsabit Central Sub-County.
A team of officers drawn from the Counter-Trafficking in Persons Unit (COICT) in Moyale, Kenya Police Service (KPS), the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) and the Administration Police Service (APS) acted on a tip-off before raiding the residence belonging to Aden Lama.
The officers rescued 30 Ethiopian nationals at the house, comprising 23 men and seven women. They arrested the caretaker of the residence, to assist with investigations into the suspected smuggling operation.
Further intelligence indicated that more victims had been moved to another location, prompting officers to pursue them.
The team subsequently rescued another 29 people, including 28 adults and a four-year-old child, approximately 14 kilometers towards the Shegel area along the Marsabit-North Horr Road.
The second group comprised 20 men and eight women, in addition to the minor.
The rescued individuals are Ethiopian nationals, and investigations are ongoing to establish the circumstances under which they were being transported or housed in the area and identify any other people linked to the suspected human smuggling network.
This is the latest such incident to happen among operations to tame the smuggling saga.
It came days after police rescued 65 Ethiopian nationals from a house in Mihang’o, Nairobi, where they were found in an emaciated and weakened state.
The discovery was made in the early hours of Tuesday, October 20, 2026, after a caretaker reported seeing foreign nationals inside the house along Gesora Road, prompting officers from Mihang’o Police Station to visit the premises.
According to police, they established that 65 Ethiopian nationals were being housed in the building. All reportedly appeared emaciated and physically weak. It is not clear how long they had been there. Locals said they had been seeing the foreigners for almost a week and they shared two rooms.
They told police they were headed for South Africa for jobs. They added they had been ferried there through the main border near Moyale.
Police said most of the aliens use the Moyale route as they head to South Africa and the Middle East, oblivious of the dangers ahead.
Tens of aliens are often arrested in various places in the country as they wait to be moved to their next destinations.
Police and immigration officials have deplored increased cases of Ethiopian and Eritrean aliens nabbed in the country while in transit.
Officials from the Transnational Organised Crime Unit are conducting joint operations to deal with human smuggling.
Tens of Ethiopians and now Eritreans are annually arrested in Kenya while in transit and later repatriated back to their countries.
Most of those arrested come to Kenya to seek jobs or are in transit to other countries like South Africa and the Middle East.
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