The recent visit by China’s Foreign minister showed Kenya has become a valued regional investment hub of strategic interest. This has put the country at the epicentre of an intense global power game between the West and China.
Kenya-China relations have attracted varied opinions. The resounding entry of China into Kenya is a convergence of economic interests of the two countries.
On one hand, Chinese African policy understandably sought to tap into the continent’s vast natural resources that would sustainably quench its insatiable demand for energy.
Sitting on one billion barrels of commercially viable oil with prospective on-going exploration activities coupled by its strategic location as the gateway to the east African market have made Kenya an attractive destination for China’s investments.
Moreover, having effectively executed its trade policies for years, China has accumulated sufficient reserves that enabled it to become a credible competitive alternative source of international financing.
With such financial muscle, China has managed to break the monopolistic dominance of the West over international financing by funding African projects at better terms.
Kenya is under the leadership of a post-Independence generation that is overly ambitious and entrusted with the task of creating an industrialised nation by 2030.
The enormity of executing this task demands the exploration of possibilities of economic partnerships in emerging economic frontiers in the East.
Understandably, such exploration carries the risk of disrupting the post-Independence economic framework, which was deliberately designed on the premise of Western dominance.
However, the recent erosion of such dominance due to poor economic performance of Western economies has precipitated Kenya’s commitment to tap into China’s massive financial and trading opportunities.
The embodiment of Kenya-China financial engagement is financing of the ongoing construction of the standard gauge railway (SGR).
The SGR is an ambitious, mega-infrastructure project that holds a transformational promise of promoting economic development in East Africa by significantly reducing transport costs.
After initial delays that were politically driven, the construction of the railway line from Mombasa to Nairobi is on schedule and much progress had been achieved by the end of 2014.
Just to mention a few, the China Exim Bank and the Kenya government each disbursed to the contractor the first instalment of 30 per cent of the civil works contract sum for construction to commence.
Compulsory land acquisition is on course with compensation of 85 per cent of the corridor being executed.
The contractor has completed 19 work camps and detailed design of 87 per cent of the corridor; established concrete mixing plant sites and material testing laboratories, among other preparations.
In conclusion, our forefathers’ revolutionary war on poverty and illiteracy that they waged at the dawn of Independence is still an issue 51 years later.
Without pointing fingers, this generation must be audacious enough to foster mutual economic partnerships with China for sake of economic development.
However, they must be unwilling to witness or allow this partnership to degenerate into another form of colonialism as prophets of doom would want us to believe.
While such safeguards are not a guarantee we must nonetheless remain engaged fearlessly, taking the protection of our economic interest as guiding principle. This we must do.
Prof Kieyah is principal policy analyst at KIPPRA. Opinions expressed are personal.
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