Chinese accused of assault to be deported tomorrow morning

The Directorate of Criminal Investigations has handed over four Chinese nationals accused of assaulting a Kenyan at a restaurant to the Immigration officers at the JKIA for deportation.

The DCI revealed on its Twitter page that plans are underway to deport the four suspects, who had been charged with whipping a Kenyan worker at Chez Wou Restaurant in Nairobi’s Kileleshwa.

According to the DCI, the move is pursuant to an order issued by the High Court that the four be repatriated to China.

“Following an order issued by Milimani High Court in criminal revision number 22 of 2020 that four Chinese nationals be repatriated back to their country of origin, detectives based at Kilimani have handed over the four to Immigration officers based at JKIA for repatriation.

The detectives have further said that the Chinese nationals will leave the country at 8.30 am tomorrow.

They were arrested after video showing one of them, believed to Deng Hailan was seen whipping a Kenyan worker for allegedly being late for work on February 9.

 They include Deng Hailan, a Chinese national who works at the hotel, Chang Yueping, Ou Qiang (chefs) and Yu Ling, a cashier at the high-end hotel.

Yesterday, the four backtracked on their stance when they requested to be deported as opposed to opposing the move, which had been sanctioned by Interior Cabinet Secretary Dr Fred Matiang’i.

Appearing before Judge Luka Kimaru, they said they had suffered and were willing to leave the country.

The prosecution sought time to get directions from the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).

At the same time, the Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI) George Kinoti opposed their application at the trial court where they wanted the court to reduce 15 days’ detention.

Through Officer Noah Kiplangat, Kinoti had said that that application is an abuse of the court process intended to defeat justice and requested the court to dismiss it.

“Considering the nature of investigations and logistics involved, the 15 days sought in the trial court will enable us conclusively complete this Multi-Agency investigation without delay,” said Kiplangat.

He said the Chinese nationals have been involved in degrading and violating fundamental rights thus breaching their condition of stay and their case for deportation is ripe.

The officer said that they have presented the suspect’s fingerprints to the National Registration Bureau and the Criminal Registration Bureau and they are yet to receive feedback on the status of the suspects.

“The investigations against the suspects is ongoing and critical since we are still pursuing the employer /owner of the hotel who has since gone into hiding having learnt of the arrest of the suspects,” added Kiplangat.

Kiplangat said that they need to obtain documents from the restaurant relating to the logins and logouts of the suspects for the period they have been in gainful employment in the country which will form part of the evidence.

He said the evidence can only be obtained when the suspects are in custody.

Additional reporting by Faith Karanja