Police arrest 5 Chinese citizens, seize 169 gambling machines

Police on Tuesday smashed an illegal gambling machines ring in Free Area in the outskirts of Nakuru town and arrested five Chinese nationals.

Nakuru County Police Commander Stephen Matu said during the raid police confiscated 169 gambling machines in a house that was rented by the Chinese men.

“We received a tip-off from an informer at about 4pm that some Chinese were doing illegal business of assembling gaming machines and we swung into action and arrested the five suspects,” said Mr Matu.

The illegal machines went through the port of Mombasa and finally landed in Nakuru in unclear circumstances.

“We don’t know how the machines landed in Nakuru after clearance in Mombasa because gambling is banned in Kenya,” said Mr Matu.

However, Mr Matu said police have launched investigations to establish how they were cleared at the port of Mombasa.

The police boss said the suspects, who are detained at Nakuru Central Police Station, will be arraigned in court on Friday.

Mr Matu said that the immigration documents indicated that they were aged between 30 and 51 years.

They arrived in Kenya early this month and had a one-month visa permit to stay in the country.

“We are yet to confirm whether the documents are fake or genuine as the suspects could not speak English,” said Mr Matu.

Mr Matu said they have not interrogated the landlord as the Chinese nationals rented the house they were staying through an agent.

Mr Matu warned traders in Nakuru town planning to do illegal gambling business that police were alert and would arrest them.