Thursday, April 16, 2015
Garissa, Kenya - Kenyan prosecutors on Wednesday charged 31 aliens from Somalia in a Garissa court for being in the country illegally.
Two of the accused denied the charges before Garissa Resident Magistrate Victor Asiyo and were ordered remanded in police custody.
The case will be heard on Thursday.
The remaining 29 who pleaded guilty were facing about 540 US dollars fine each or serve a six-month jail term.
They will be repatriated after paying or serving the jail term.
The accused were arrested by the Anti-terror Police Unit inside a rented house near Garissa University College, the scene of the terror attack that left 148 people dead earlier this month.
They had been brought the previous night and were awaiting onward transport arrangement to Nairobi.
The trafficker, Yassin Ibrahim Leyal, a Somali national, was also arrested in his house with the aliens.
Police believe the suspects, 8 male and 23 female were on transit to Nairobi.
The security forces have intensified patrols along the border with Somalia in the wake of terror attack at the Garissa University.
The government on Tuesday also announced an amnesty for youth who joined Al-Shabaab to commit terrorist activities in the Horn and Eastern African region.
The move comes as leaders from northeast Kenya have urged local residents to help the government identify Al-Shabaab criminals living amongst them.
Since the Kenya military crossed into Somalia in 2011, several attacks believed to have been carried out by al-Shabaab have occurred in Mandera, Wajir, and Garissa in northern Kenya even as the military reports gains against the Islamist group by capturing their military bases and killing scores of them.