NAIROBI, May 19: Kenyan Immigration Minister Linah Chebii Kilimo personally led police to the rescue of five Indian women immigrants who were being forced to sing in a plush nightclub and locked up during the day, officials said on Thursday.

Mr Kilimo stormed into the nightclub in upmarket Parklands estate late on Tuesday and rescued the girls after she received an SMS text message on the plight of the women, aged between 20 and 29, Isaac Kegode, commander of Nairobi’s police division, said.

“This is a cartel of people who are taking advantage of desperate girls. The bottom line is that they were used as sex objects as they sing at night,” Kegode said. “They claimed that their travel documents had been confiscated after their arrival in March then forced to sing overnight, sometimes until 7am and locked in a room for the rest of the day,” he said. —AFP