Court fines 18 Ethiopians illegally in Kenya Sh30, 000 each

A Marsabit court Monday fined 18 Ethiopians Sh30, 000 each or serve a three-month jail term for being in the country illegally.

The court also fined Mr Ali Bishar Mohammed and Dahir Hussein Mohammed for facilitating the migrants’ entry into Kenya.

Appearing before the Marsabit senior resident magistrate Boaz Ombewa, they all pleaded guilty to the charge.

The court was told the Ethiopian nationals were arrested Monday in a Nairobi-bound lorry that was transporting beans.

Police seized the illegal migrants at a Marsabit-Moyale roadblock in Marsabit Central sub-County at around 3am after a tip off from the public.

“Police officers on patrol flagged down a lorry and upon conducting a search, they found several passengers on board, they then asked them for their identification documents where they found 18 Ethiopians nationals without  travel documents,’’ Mr Jacob Kibet, a prosecutor told the court.

Mr Ombewa ordered the Ethiopians to be deported to their country upon paying the fines or serving their jail terms. The migrants have 14 days to appeal against the sentence.

The sentencing comes barely a month after the same court fined nine Ethiopians Sh100, 000 each with an alternative of serving one year in prison for the similar offence.

Last week, three police officers were arrested in Sololo area for allegedly ferrying 23 Ethiopians migrants to Nairobi.

Hundreds of Ethiopians nationals headed to South Africa in search of greener pastures face dangerous challenges on their way including arrests, jail and even death.