More Egyptians arrested in purge on illegal foreign workers

Five Egyptians arrested in Homa Bay Town and another six in Embu will face charges of being in the country illegally and operating businesses without permits.

Also Read: 6 Egyptians seized as crackdown on illegal work permits intensifies

Abdel Mahab, Abdel Razak, Mustafa Soliman, Ehab Mohammed and Mohammed Khayty were arrested on Tuesday night after a tip-off from Homa Bay residents.

“The Egyptian citizens came into the country with traveling documents as tourists and their passports expired by on July 22 2018,” Homa Bay Police Commander Marius Tum said.

The suspects who are being held at Homa Bay Police Station were found in possession of small rolls of bhang with an estimated street value of Ksh.200.

Tum also revealed that police discovered boxes of kitchenware which the suspects were reportedly selling to members of the public.

According to the Homa Bay police boss, the five will be deported back to their country after officers from the Immigration Department complete verification of their travel documents.

Earlier this month, another Egyptian citizen was fined Ksh100,000 by the Homa Bay Law Court for engaging in illegal business and being in the country without proper documents.

EGYPTIANS SEIZED IN EMBU

Meanwhile, in Embu, six more Egyptians were arraigned in court on Monday after they were suspected of intention to commit crime.

The six foreigners were renting a house in Gakwegori Village and are said to have been hawking household goods at the time of the arrest.

They are Mohamed Saad Ibrahim Mahia, Mohamed Saad Ibrahim Alhanafy, Ahmed Fetouh Attiah, Moustafa Shokri Ahmed, Mohmoud Mohamed Hassan and Moustafa Regab Mohamed.

The suspects were presented before Chief Magistrate Maxwell Gicheru where the Directorate of Criminal Investigation sought consent to hold them for two more days to allow for further investigations.

In an affidavit sworn by Sergeant Charles Emoodo, the DCIO said they were in the country without relevant documents while engaging in business without a permit.

Five of them could not understand English and had to rely on one of their counterparts to translate their responses.

They opposed the application insisting that their documents were legal and allowed them to do business.

According to them, at the time of the arrest, they were ambushed and therefore unable to produce the relevant documents.

They urged the court to give them time to retrieve their papers.

Magistrate Gicheru rejected the DCIO’s application and ordered that the six be held at Embu Police Station for a night.

He further directed that the six be escorted by police in the morning to get the said the documents before being brought back to court.

The arrests come days after Interior CS Fred Matiang’i ordered the deportation of all illegal immigrants from the country by November 30 this year.

Report by Aly Abich and Antony Ndwiga