Four employees of the China Railway Engineering Group Company Limited were on Tuesday morning arrested for allegedly assaulting a roads engineer who declined a bribe they had offered.
The incident happened in Turkana county.
The arrest of Liu Jiang, Wang Kai, Zhao Liangbin and Li Shaoqing came after over 400 local employees of the contractor protested the incident.
Rodgers Imasa, the engineer was inspecting the Loichangamak-Lodwar road being constructed by the Chinese firm on Friday last week.
The incident is alleged to have happened at the firm’s construction site in the Turkana Central sub-county.
On Monday, the workers protested over what they termed increasing cases of assault and mistreatment by fellow Chinese workers.
According to Lodwar OCS David Mutengi, the Chinese nationals were arrested following a manhunt was launched as they went into hiding after committing the alleged offence.
Mutengi added that the Chinese nationals were apprehended in Turkana South in the wee hours of Tuesday morning as they attempted to leave the county.
It was alleged that the four wrestled the engineer who had gone to visit the A1 road for the purposes of inspection.
The workers claimed that the engineer had questioned the quality of the road when one of the Chinese nationals attempted to bribe him, and when he declined to take the money, they descended on him with blows and kicks.
The workers' spokesperson Joseph Kimtai, during the Monday protests, accused their employers of perpetuating impunity by attacking local employees.
“It is unfortunate and disrespectful that someone can attack a government official, who is also the representative in a construction project,” Kimtai stated.