Detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) rescued 60 victims of human trafficking who were being held at an apartment in Nairobi’s Tassia estate.
The victims in question, according to the DCI, were allegedly scheduled to be sold as human slaves overseas by their suspected traffickers.
“Acting on intelligence leads, sleuths based at DCI’s Transnational & Organized Crime Unit, augmented by Embakasi-based officers while on a scrupulous crackdown on illegal immigrants, traced the victims to a residential apartment within Tassia in Embakasi, Nairobi County,” said the DCI.
When the agency obtained entry into the residence, its detectives discovered the victims bundled up in one room, according to the agency.
According to the DCI, the victims, aged 14 to 50, were trafficked against their will from two countries neighboring Kenya to the north.
“Upon further inquiries, it was established that the 60 victims had been ferried to the location temporarily, as the traffickers sought alternative ways of transporting them outside the country undetected,’ the agency said.
Three suspects were arrested during the operation on suspicion of being part of a wider human trafficking gang operating across the Horn of Africa, according to the George-Kinoti-led organization.
The accused were identified as Mohammed Omar Aden, 29, Halima Mohammed Osman, 43, and Sala Yusuf, 23.
“The victims and the suspects are currently being held at different police stations in Nairobi pending legal procedures,” said the DCI.