NAIROBI — Kenyan police arrested more than 100 Somalis in an overnight crackdown in the capital Nairobi on illegal immigrants, an official said Friday.
The operation was conducted in the wake of bombings in neighbouring Uganda that killed at least 73 people and were claimed by Somalia's Al Qaeda-linked Shebab rebels but police refused to link the raid to the Kampala blasts.
"We have intensified a crackdown on all aliens. We arrested 102 Somalis last night and the crackdown is going on," Nairobi province police officer Anthony Kibuchi said.
"This crackdown will be carried out in all the estates and it will continue. It is not something we are going to stop any time soon," he said, adding the individuals would appear in court on Friday.
Two Nairobi districts, one of which is dominated by Kenyans of Somali origin and Somali refugees, were targeted in Thursday night's operation.
At least 30 Ethiopians were also rounded up during a similar police swoop in Nairobi on Wednesday night.
Earlier this week, the army said it had intensified security along the country's porous border with Somalia, with truckloads of troops deployed there following Sunday's explosions in Kampala.
The blasts that tore through a crowd watching the World Cup final were the deadliest in the region since the Al Qaeda-claimed bombings of US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam in 1998.
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