Police in Kakamega have rescued 38 women from human traffickers believed to facilitate movement of women to the Middle East.
During the operation led by security teams drawn from regular and administration police, a 33-year-old suspect was arrested.
According to a police report, the suspect was preparing to transport the women aged between 19-45 years to Middle East to work as casual labourers.
The suspect is currently held at Kakamega Police Station as police dig into the matter.
Kakamega Central Sub County Police Commander, David Kabena, confirmed the incident saying the women were kept at a local school waiting to be ferried either to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Lebanon and other Middle East countries.
“We got intelligence report from the members of the public that women had been camping for three days at a secondary School at Elwesero area but their mission there was unknown,” said Mr Kabena.
According to the officer, the suspect is said to have hired space at the school after he tricked the teachers that he was to run a religious function targeting area residents.
“The school management became suspicious when they discovered that only women were being hosted at the school and that no religious activity was going on, prompting them to inform the police and then we acted swiftly,” said Kabena.
Mr Kabena divulged that a team of Narcotics and Human Trafficking from the police headquarters in Nairobi has been deployed in the area to carry out further investigations on the suspect and the women before they’re presented in court on Monday.
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He affirmed that his officers will carry out investigations and establish the number of people who have been ferried to the Middle East. Adding that his team will take necessary action to end the illegal business.
“We will not allow unscrupulous middlemen to misuse our people by selling them as slaves to middle East as casual labourers. This is pure exploitation and must stop. Many Kenyans have died in middle east and we can’t give room to that,” said Kabena.
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