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By:
JOSEPH NDUNDA | |||||||||
| Posted:
Jul,25-2018 12:29:18
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A court in Nairobi on Wednesday declined to sentence 20 Ugandan girls who were arrested in a probe on suspected cases of human trafficking.
The girls, who were arrested at JKIA aboard a flight to Oman on Monday, pleaded guilty to the charge of using passports with forged Kenyan security stamps.
They were nabbed after the Immigration Department's Forgery Detection Unit established that security endorsements on their passports were forged.
Chief Magistrate Francis Andayi declined to sentence the suspects as the prosecution did not present enough evidence to prove the charges.
On Wednesday, the prosecution told the court that the passports indicated the girls entered the country through Busia, Malaba and Lwakhakha border posts.
But after verification, FDU established that the stamps were fake, did not originate from the respective offices and that there are no records to show the women gained entry through the border posts. Andayi convicted the 20 aliens on their own plea of guilty and pardoned them. He ordered the Starehe OCPD to facilitate their travel to Ugandan Mission's offices. "Their physical stature shows they are young and the fact that they can't speak in English means they are not well educated. I, therefore, discharge them without punishment," Andayi said. The girls' passports were retained by the Department of Immigration. The suspects' lawyer David Ayuo said the Ugandan High commission in Nairobi had requested to have them handed over to them for joint interrogation with ATPU to assist rescue others who could be on the verge of being sold to slavery. Ayuo represented the suspects and the Ugandan mission. "Uganda High Commission requests the esteemed court for leniency to be granted to the girls and release them to the mission with their passports to facilitate their return to Uganda." "Furthermore, these girls are usually victims of human trafficking which is rampant in the region,' the mission said in a letter to the court. | |||||||||
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