Kenyan police nab 9 suspects involved in fake passport, visa cartel

Noah Katumo, Kenyan Head of Special Crimes Prevention Unit, said police arrested  68 with forged documents and 39 visa seals in Nairobi late on Wednesday.

He said on Thursday in Nairobi that the suspects included two Ethiopians, two Somalis and two Bangladesh nationals and a Kenya Airways staffer, who was believed to have been helping other suspects with fake papers to pass through the airport.

 Katumo said it was so unfortunate because with the development government did not know how many people have managed to pass the airport using these fake documents.

He said even though government was trying to establish it yet it was a serious cartel.

Katumo cautioned the people behind the racket of dire consequences, saying using or printing a fake passport is a threat to national and international security.

Police involved in the operation said the foreigners arrested in Ngara residential estate were headed for Mozambique, South Africa and Angola and later to Europe using the fake papers.

``The fake visa documents are for European countries. The operation also recovered laptops, printers and laminating machines from the house in Ngara,''  the officers said.

Katumo said they are looking for an official at the immigration department after he was mentioned in the cartel and investigations. He said security operations on the other missing and wanted persons are ongoing.

He said the arrest was coming after the government announced drastic security measures at border points and all entry points across the East African nation to curtail cross border incursions by Al- Shabaab, fraud and corruption.

Joseph Ole -Lenku,  Cabinet Secretary, internal security said government would soon commence digitalisation of all security registries and link all border entry points through broadband to ensure that data to and from entry points can be accessed in real time.

He said the enhanced security measures followed attack on the Westgate shopping mall in last September where at least 67 people were killed and more than 200 others injured.

``It also follow impending terrorist attack amid intelligence reports that the insurgents from Somalia are planning to carry out attacks in Kenya and East Africa region,’’ he said.

Ole -Lenku said government has expressed concern that terrorists are increasingly using fake identification documents to access some areas while planning to attack.

Xinhua reports that government recently sacked over 10 workers at the immigration department over corruption allegations after a security audit carried out after the September 21, 2013 Westgate mall terror attack revealed massive fraud in the issuing of identification documents to foreigners, with people paying as little as $470 for the crucial papers.

It said the audit, which was carried out after the attack revealed the deals involved top officials and said these were the loopholes Somali terrorist group Al-Shabaab exploited to send killers to Kenya through the refugee camps.

It said the documents included visas, birth certificates, work permits and identification documents. Police now believe terror suspects would not operate freely unless permitted by their local host communities.

It said the troops operating in Somalia, insisted that the defection of some of Al-Shabaab's top intelligence commander enabled the Kenyan side to gain new information about the attack plot and pre-emptive and disruptive strikes were carried out to neutralise the threats further.