Sports Cabinet Secretary Rashid Achesa has been implicated in an ongoing human trafficking investigation involving eight Pakistani nationals.
This comes after the eight foreigners, said to be dancers, were arrested in one of the popular clubs in Nairobi’s Parklands estate, the Daily Nation reports.
Appearing before Senior Principal Magistrate Kennedy Cheruiyot at the Milimani Law Courts, defense lawyer Evans Ondieki says the eight were brought into the country as cultural dancers on CS Achesa’s authority.
Lawyer Ondieki says the eight foreigners were issued with special passes after paying Sh45,000 each to the Immigration Department, allowing them to perform in the country until January 18th, 2019.
He urged the court to free the eight on humanitarian grounds, arguing that police went against CS Achesa’s order by arresting them.
“On humanitarian grounds, I urge this court to release these girls as they have not bathed for the last one week, health rules require women to fresh up and bath as many times as they can afford,” Ondieki told the magistrate.
However, the judge has ordered the eight girls be held in a safe house until January 8th to give police time to find out whether they are victims of human trafficking.
The owner of Bella Bella Club, Safendra Kumar Sonwani and the joint’s manager Mika Osichiro will be arraigned on January 8th and could be charged with human trafficking depending on the outcome of police investigations.
