Police in Kenya have arrested six people in connection with the murder by strangling of Venezuela's most senior diplomat in the country at her residence in Nairobi.

"We are holding six. Please give us time. Let us investigate," Anthony Kibuchi, Nairobi area police commander, told Reuters by phone on Saturday, without giving more details.

On Friday, police said Olga Fonseca, Venezuela's acting ambassador and charge d'affaires, had been found dead in her residence on her bed, but that it was unclear why she had been killed.
 
Officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that Kenyan staff at the embassy's residence had complained to its Diplomatic Police Unit after the new envoy fired them.

Fonseca had sacked them after they refused to retract sexual harassment claims against the former head of the Venezuelan embassy, the employees said.

The ministry is investigating their allegations, officials said on Friday.

Though Fonseca's murder is not thought to be related to theft, violent and sometimes fatal robberies in Nairobi are common.

Diplomats are among the most well-guarded people in the east African country.

Officials in Caracas said Fonseca, who started her job on July 15, was also Venezuela's representative to UN agencies based in Nairobi, and had responsibility for Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda.