Kenya apologizes for briefly detaining Chinese reporters

The Kenyan government apologized to China on Thursday after police briefly detained a number of Chinese journalists and Chinese workers with legitimate licenses on Wednesday during a raid in Nairobi to flush out illegal foreign workers.

Kenya’s executive vice foreign minister apologized on Thursday to China on the behalf of the Kenyan government, and the Kenyan police spokesperson also apologized while being interviewed on the incident, according to a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Chinese Embassy in Kenya made representations to Kenya’s leaders and law-enforcement depart- ments, and those detained were released the same day, the statement from the Chinese Foreign Ministry said.

The raid was a part of a crackdown by Kenyan police on illegal immigrants, and more than 1,200 illegal immigrants from 26 countries in Europe, Latin America, Asia and Eastern Africa have been detained.

The Kenyan government said the raid was an unfortunate incident that both sides don’t want to see, and the incident was caused by wrong information and inappropriate lawenforcement. Kenya’s firm stance of being friendly to China remains unchanged, and it will never change. Kenya will investigate the incident, and will seriously deal with the lawenforcement officers responsible, said the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

However, a similar incident happened again on Friday. AFP reported that a Nairobi-based Chinese journalist was detained.

Police entered the offices of a Chinese newspaper in Nairobi demanding the documents of staff before hauling a journalist to the police station despite having verified his work permit online.

The journalist was later released, AFP reported.