Bartamaha (Nairobi):- Police in Kenya have arrested several hundred people in the Eastleigh suburb of the capital Nairobi – an area where many Somalis live.

The police said the arrests were a routine effort to find illegal immigrants.

It is possible however that the arrests were in response to an attack on Friday in the same area which killed one policeman.

Those arrested are due to appear in court later.

The arrests in Eastleigh appeared to be indiscriminate.

People were picked up on the streets, from restaurants, hotels and from their homes and were then forced on to police trucks.

It is not clear exactly how many were arrested – some eyewitnesses say about 400.

The police described the operation as a routine search for illegal immigrants.

The Nairobi suburb of Eastleigh is where many Kenyan Somalis and immigrants from Somalia live.

The fact that the arrest of several hundred people hardly gets a mention in the local press suggests there is little sympathy for the targets of these police swoops, which happen every few months.

One Kenyan man complained to the BBC that he had been due to sit a university exam on Monday morning and had been arrested despite the fact that he was carrying his identification card.

A police officer was killed in Eastleigh on Saturday in an apparent grenade attack.

Police officials ruled out the involvement of Islamist militants in the attack and denied that the arrests were linked to the incident.

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Source:- BBC NEWS.

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