Ongoing construction of the Nairobi Expressway Uhuru Highway by China Road and Bridge Corporation on September 6, 2021. According to a US report, China is using Kenya as launch pad for soft power in Africa.
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Kenya ‘a prop’ to China’s supremacy agenda, US report says
What you need to know:
- According to a US report, China is using Kenya as launch pad for soft power in Africa.
- Foreign Affairs PS says Kenya’s relationship has been highly beneficial on the infrastructure front.
An official report to the United States Congress claims China has abused its economic influence over Kenya to drive its expansionist agenda, including pushing for the ultimate annexation of Taiwan as part of its One-China policy.
The 741-page annual report, released by the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, says Beijing is using its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which includes investments in roads, railways, and airports, to bolster its quest for global supremacy.
The commission was created in 2000 to submit an annual report to Congress on the national security implications of the economic ties between the US and China, and to provide recommendations for government action.
The 2023 report notes that many of the countries that have sent Taiwan nationals to China, such as Kenya, have close economic relations with China and are all signatories of the BRI. Kenya became a signatory in 2017, the year it launched the standard gauge railway (SGR), one of China’s largest investments in Africa.
“In one high-profile case, Kenya, one of the highest recipients of BRI investment in Africa, agreed to extradite to mainland China 45 Taiwan citizens implicated in a telecom equipment scam that targeted Chinese nationals, despite protests from Taiwan,” reads part of the report.
Construction of a section of the Standard Gauge Railway. The mega project in Kenya is part of the Road and Belt initiative.
“Kenya continues to deepen its economic relations with China. The year following the deportations, Kenya opened a major railway from the Port of Mombasa to the city of Naivasha, financed by a $5 billion (Sh766,79 billion) loan from a Chinese bank, and as of 2022, China serves as Kenya’s largest external creditor, at 22 per cent of its external debt,” the report states.
In December 2017, a Beijing court handed down jail sentences of up to 15 years to 85 people deported from Kenya for telecoms fraud, including 44 from Taiwan.
Kenya’s Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Korir Sing’oei said Nairobi respects the One-China Policy.
“For all intents and purposes, these are Chinese nationals ... I would not be apologetic about our relationship with China, just like I would be unapologetic about our relationship with the US,” he said. He also defended Nairobi’s involvement in the BRI.
“Yes, Kenya is a partner in the Belt and Road Initiative, has benefited a great deal from infrastructural developments like the SGR. We have been in negotiation with neighbouring countries with a view to having that line extended to our border with Uganda all the way to DRC. So, that would be fair, but it is not in any way antagonistic ... it is a mutually beneficial relationship that we are looking at,” Dr Sing’oei.
He added: “We owe China tonnes of money and in repaying what we owe to them, we work with everybody, including some of the Western bilateral partners and multilateral organisations, among others, to address our debt situation.”
Chinese loans as a share of Kenya’s total external loans had risen to $9.06 billion (Sh1.38 trillion) or 23 per cent of the total, by end of September. However, the Chinese stock of loans is lower than the World Bank’s at $12.37 billion(Sh1.83 trillion), or 32.3 per cent of Kenya’s total loans.
But China is also Kenya’s largest bilateral trader, with imports from the country, described as the factory of the world, increasing by 41 per cent from Sh320.8 billion in 2013 to Sh452.6 billion, according to official data.
According to the report, China is also keen to ensure that the conflict in neighbouring countries does not spill over into Kenya where it has vast investments.
“In South Sudan, China has a vested interest in using its UN peacekeeping presence to prevent the conflict from spilling over into neighboring countries that host signature BRI investments, such as Uganda, Kenya, and Ethiopia,” states the report.
Speaker of the Senate Amason Jeffah Kingi (right) with the Chinese Ambassador to Kenya His Excellency Zhou Pingjian (centre) and H.E. Zhang Zhizhong-Minister Counsellor and new Deputy Chief of Mission at the Chinese Embassy in Nairobi during a courtesy call at the Senate on August 8, 2023.
Indeed, Kenya, the report noted, is one of the participants in the International Military Flight Training Conference—initiated by the People’s Liberation Army Air Force in 2010—which is held biennially. The conference has been convened seven times since inception.
“Participants in previous conferences included representatives from Botswana, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Kenya, Kuwait, Namibia, Pakistan, Spain, Thailand, Zambia, Zimbabwe and others,” the report states.
Dr Sing’oei defended Kenya’s ties with China in South Sudan.
“We work very closely with the US on the same objective. That is partly why we are working on Sudan, because Sudan is within the same ecosystem with South Sudan and if things go south in Khartoum, it has a knock-on effect on Juba and it can trigger other developments that impact Kenya,” he said.
Dr Oscar Otele, a lecturer at the University of Nairobi and a researcher on China-Africa relations, agreed that there has been a tendency for China to use economic diplomacy to drive its agenda, but insisted the Beijing has been recalibrating its engagement with the continent away from financial funding and more towards increased political relations.
The administration of President William Ruto, said Dr Otele, is perceived to be breaking away from the “look-East policy” that was started by former President Mwai Kibaki. “It is actually in the US’s interest to pull back Kenya to its fold,” said Dr Otele.
But China’s interest in Kenya, a regional hub, goes beyond economic interests, with the report showing Beijing is also using the country as the launch pad for its “soft power” on the continent by spreading its values and cultural norms, including language and cuisine.
One of the means through which China is buttressing its soft power is through content-sharing agreements and other partnerships with mainstream media in what is aimed at ensuring that official Chinese messaging reaches large local audiences.
CGTN’s regular slot on public broadcaster Kenya Broadcasting Corporation’s Channel 1 from 11pm to midnight, Monday to Friday, as well as China Radio International’s use of a frequency provided by the same public broadcaster to broadcast programming for 19 hours a day in English, Chinese, and Swahili are cited.
CGTN Africa is the African division of China Global Television Network, the English-language news channel run by Chinese State broadcaster China Central Television.
China has experienced phenomenal growth over the last three decades, with some analysts noting that it is only a matter of time until the Asian nation overtakes the US.
