Daily Nation’s Aggrey Mutambo on the Current State of China-Kenya Relations

The China-Kenya relationship is at a sort of inflection point right now where there is a palpable sense that the relationship has to change or else it risks deteriorating. The ballooning debt, yawning trade imbalance and the general lack of transparency in the deals made between these two countries are becoming increasingly unsustainable, both economically and politically.

This sense of frustration, or at least the need for change, was evident last week during a visit to Nairobi by Chinese president Xi Jinping’s special envoy Yang Jiechi, who also happens to be one of China’s most senior foreign policy officials. Yang met with President Uhuru Kenyatta for the standard diplomatic discussions on mutual development, Belt and Road, etc… but interestingly after the talks, the Kenyan president issued a statement where he called on the Chinese to do more to foster private sector engagement and to make it easier for Kenyan products to access the vast China market.

“We need to really now focus on how we can work together to get our private sector, our investors to work more closely together,” Kenyatta said in the statement. “How do we attract Chinese investors, manufacturers, industrialists and other businesspeople to invest in Kenya?”

“A spokesperson of Chinese ambassador to Kenya Mr Wu Peng, told  The East African that China is still interested in making Kenya a part of its “Belt and Road Initiative,” but will only enter into projects that are viable.” -- Aggrey Mutambo

The president is clearly signaling to Beijing that ties have to evolve beyond the state-to-state model that has defined the relationship until now. Moreover the Chinese are under pressure from both Japan and the United States who are also focusing their new Africa policies on private sector engagement.

While there are indications that non-state-owned Chinese companies, Transsion, Huawei and Alibaba for example, are moving quickly to expand in Africa, it’s not entirely clear if the Chinese government is prepared for what would no doubt be a major shift where the state has always been in control of the agenda.

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