Four Chinese nationals who were arrested on Sunday over the caning of Kenyans at their restaurant in Kileleshwa have been remanded until Thursday.
The court will determine on Thursday on whether to detain the four suspects for 21 days as requested by the investigating officers.
In an affidavit by the investigating officer Noah Kiplangat, the suspects Deng Heilan, Ou Giang, Yu Ling, Chang Yueping are being investigated for assault.
In the application for custodial orders, Kiplangat said that their investigations lead to the establishment of other offenses that they have committed, including engaging in business without authorization and work permits.
The four are also said to have failed to comply with the conditions imposed by their tourist visas.
The court was informed that the suspects were arrested on February 9, 2020, at Chez Wou Restaurant within the Kileleshwa area in Nairobi.
“The four were arrested following a report which was made at Kileleshwa police station by Simon Osaka Silo who was an employee of the said restaurant and worked as a waiter,” said Kiplangat.
He said that the complainant reported that on February 2, 2020, he was assaulted by Heilan after the claimant reported for work late.
The complainant said after he was assaulted, he was then fired by Deng who refused to pay his salary.
“It is notable that a video where the claimant was being assaulted went viral on social media which attracted the interest of the members of the public,” said Kiplangat.
The officer told the court that detectives based at Kilimani visited the scene of the crime where they arrested the suspects.
The court was informed that during the interrogation, it was established that all the suspects are Chinese nationals and worked at the restaurant.
The suspect who assaulted the complainant was working as a chef and is on a visitor’s pass.
“Ou is on a holiday visa which had expired in December 2019. Yu is on a holiday visa which expired in November 2019 and Chang is on a holiday visa which is invalid hence are not allowed to work in the country” said Kiplangat.
He added that during the arrest, four passports were recovered from the suspects, three of which had invalid visas.
“I am yet to trace the complainant and record his statement since he went home after he was dismissed from his workplace,” he said.
The officer said that he is yet to confirm the authenticity of the four passport numbers and visas endorsed by the Immigration Department.
The detective said that he needs to forward the suspects’ fingerprints to the criminal records office at the Directorate of Criminal Investigations to establish if the suspects have previous criminal records.
“The suspects being foreigners, they are a flight risk and should they be released before the completion of the investigations, there is a likelihood that they will abscond and also interfere with the investigations,” he said.
Further, the officer said that they need to contact the Kenya Revenue Authority to establish if the suspects have been filing tax returns and legality of their business venture.
“If they are released, they are likely to interfere with witnesses some whom are employees at the restaurant and they have authority over them,” he said.
The court will rule on whether to detain them for 21 days on Thursday, February 13, 2020.
