Security agencies in Migori County have been asked to contain the huge number of aliens roaming in the region.
Residents claimed that the rate of crime that has soared in the region in the recent past had been caused by the visitors mainly from a neighbouring Country.
Speaking at a forum convened by the local Nyumba Kumi outfit in Isebania border town yesterday, it emerged that the security of the County was seriously being compromised by aliens mainly from one tribe in Tanzania.
It has become a concern that men from the Wasukuma tribe have been easily finding their ways into Kenyan villages as cattle herders, farm hands and inheritors of the many widows in the area.
Participants at the forum that brought together village security groups from all the eight sub-counties in the region, expressed concern that the existence of the foreigners in the area was also fuelling up the spread of the dreaded disease HIV/Aids after embracing unprotected sex with widows.
Mr. Pius Olima, a Nyumba Kumi chairman from Ogango village in Rongo Sub-County claimed that some of the aliens-turned Kenyans were colluding with their Kenyan hosts to engage in criminal acts in villages and urban areas.
He explained that widows especially from the Luo community adores the visitors and welcomes them in their matrimonial homes as new husbands because of their hard work in doing all kinds of chores in their newly acquired families.
They offer cheap labour and unwavering love to the widows and their children, attracting a strong bond with the inherited families unlike the indigenous men, added Olima.
Participants also lamented that there was also a huge number of Tanzanian nationals working as cane cutters at the Awendo-based sugar miller-SONY, but who have no legal documents to allow their stay in the country.
Some of the visitors, as far as Congo, Somalia and Uganda, have landed in the area as traditional doctors, bar maids, hawkers and small scale businesspeople, are also traversing the length and breadth of the county and have even acquired the Kenyan identity cards through fraudulent means and flush them comfortably whenever asked to do so.
The aliens rent houses in various trading centres around and comfortably live among the indigenous people with the full knowledge of the local administration.
“These are the same visitors who later move into the villages to inherit women when they feel the environment is much relaxed on their side,” rued Mr. CalestusMwita from Mote Morabu village in Kuria West Sub County.
An assistant chief from Uriri Sub County Charles Migoya confirmed the presence of some of the aliens in his area but accused some of his subjects of giving them protection because of the important duties they are performing to them.
“Some of the inherited widows are so protective to their new-found husbands that they go miles away in confining them in their homes for months away from the police and the administration,” said Migoya during an interview.
He asked the local people to support the ‘Nyumba-Kumi’ concept initiated by the national government to help flush out aliens who may be a threat to their security.
The NyumbaKumi concept, if embraced well, offers Kenyans wherever they stay an opportunity to know every character, visitor or criminal, living amidst them.
Meanwhile, a Kenyan official at the customs offices at Isebania-border town who asked to remain anonymous because of the nature of his work told KNA that there could be a big number of foreigners who cross over into the country without legal documents.
“We are aware of Tanzanians crossing over into Kenya through ‘Panya’ routes owing to the porous nature of our border to seek for jobs, but their identities and arrest can only be done by the local administration which is spread to the grassroots,” said the officer.
County police commander Joseph Nthenge asked residents to avail to the police details of all aliens living amidst them so that action could be taken against them.
“We want every person to be an ambassador of peace in this region especially this time when the country is faced by the acts of terrorism by exposing all those deemed bent on causing chaos or insecurity of any nature,” he said.
By George Agimba
