By RENSON MNYAMWEZI

Police in Taita-Taveta have arrested nine Ethiopians and Tanzanians for entering Kenya illegally.

They were arrested at Taveta and Voi sub-counties yesterday as an operation to flush out gangsters in the area was stepped up.

County Police Commander Richard Bitonga said six of the suspects were arrested at Kasigau area in Voi district and three in Taveta district and they did not have travel documents on them.

“We suspect they have been engaging in criminal activities in the region. The operation will continue until the region is rid of aliens and gangs,” he said.

Bitonga said the suspects would be taken to court once investigations are complete.

“Anyone found habouring criminals will also face the full force of the law,” Bitonga warned.

Security measures

Briefing The Standard on measures taken to address insecurity in the region, the police boss maintained that the war on crime is still going on and called on members of the public to support the police.

The operation comes barely two days after Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Ole Lenku held a security meeting in Nairobi with senior police officers to find ways of dealing with insecurity issues in the country.

Bitonga said security personnel have intensified a major crackdown on aliens and anyone found facilitating their movement in the area will be arrested and prosecuted.

“Police have been put on high alert to ensure that the area is rid of aliens who have been sneaking in and out of the country through the porous Kenya-Tanzania border in Taveta district,” Bitonga said.

The arrest comes at a time when cases of crime continue to escalate in the region.

Last week, two county government workers were shot and seriously injured by three gun-toting gangsters who raided a cess collection centre at Taveta border town.

One of the victims died while undergoing treatment at Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre in Moshi, Tanzania.

Police said the gangsters believed to be operating from Kenya and Tanzania, made away with more than Sh17,000 among other valuables from the workers.

Bitonga said the workers were collecting cess at night in the outskirts of Taveta town when they were confronted by the robbers armed with a pistol. When the gangsters demanded money from the workers, they resisted forcing them to shoot.

The police officer said one of the victims was shot twice in the stomach and died of gunshot wounds while the other was hit on the head with a blunt object.

 “These criminals that have been terrorising residents are still at large. We need residents to volunteer whatever information they have that can lead to the arrest of these suspects,” Bitonga said.

Another six armed gangsters raided a filling station in Voi town and robbed workers of cash, several gas cylinders and lubricants among other valuables.

 Bitonga said police are looking for the runaway suspects who they say are in cahoots with some of the employees.

 A fortnight ago, two armed gangsters attacked and robbed a businesswoman off money and other valuables in Taveta border town.

Armed with a pistol, the yet to be found gangsters waylaid the woman at night as she entered her resident in the populous Califonia Estate aboard a boda boda.

Bitonga said he has since directed Taveta OCPD Gababa Darso to crack down on unregistered motorbike operators who he accused of colluding with criminals to commit crime in the area.