Kenyans angry at low compensation attack Chinese railway constructors

Protesters had hurled stones and vandalised a bulldozer on Thursday, warning China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) not to restart construction until they had been adequately paid for land earmarked for the line. It was not clear if anyone was injured.

Mombasa governor Hassan Ali Joho, who toured the area on Friday, said he supported the residents and that work must stop immediately. But it was not immediately clear if the demand was being heeded. CRBC had no comment.

Tensions have sometimes come to a boil across the continent between residents and Chinese workers brought in to help build Chinese-funded projects, either over compensation or over the amount of work being done by expatriate workers.

The $13.8 billion (8.9 billion pounds) rail project, which began last December, will eventually link Mombasa on the Indian Ocean to the capital Nairobi, and then Uganda. It is part of a package of deals between Kenya and China signed in 2013.

"My land has been taken, my house is also going to be destroyed, plus I have been moved away from the shoreline where I used to fish, and they give me only 18,000 shillings ($185)? It will not happen," said one of the protesters, 54-year-old Peter Chegero.

The government, which had said it would buy up to 11,000 acres (4,450 hectares) from local residents for the project, on Wednesday announced it would pay 4.4 billion shillings, or an average of 4,000 shillings ($41) an acre. Many landowners say the amount they have been offered is woefully inadequate.

The existing metre-gauge railway was built by the British at the turn of the previous century. Officials say the new standard gauge line will ferry heavier and bigger containers more quickly and relieve pressure on roads regularly damaged by heavy traffic.

(Reporting by Joseph Akwiri; editing by Drazen Jorgic and Kevin Liffey)