As US President Barack Obama embarks on his official visit to Kenya in eight years, it is interesting that his motorcade shall be driving along a Chinese built road(Thika Highway) to address tens of thousands of Kenyans at yet another Chinese built facility, Safaricom Sports Centre.
As he addresses Kenyans at the stadium, a group of Chinese Contractors will be busy, not so far away, with the ongoing expansion of the Outering Road on the outskirts of the capital Nairobi.
President Uhuru Kenyatta officially launched the commencement of the construction of the Nairobi Outer Ring Road Improvement Project and Nairobi Eastern Missing Link Roads on Thursday, January 22nd 2015. SinoHydro Tianjin Engineering is constructing the Outer Ring Road at a cost of Sh8.5 billion.
China has already overtaken the United States as the continent’s main trading partner.
According to David Shinn, a former U.S. ambassador to Burkina Faso and Ethiopia, China surpassed the United States as Africa’s main trading partner in 2009.
Testifying at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee on African Affairs meeting on November 1, Shinn estimated that China’s trade with African totaled $127 billion in 2010, a 40-percent increase from the previous year, compared to $113 billion for the United States.
Today, the energy sector accounts for over 70 percent of China’s trade with Africa. China also imports 30 percent of its oil from African countries.
As for the US their efforts mostly focus on:
- Boosting agricultural productivity through the Feed the Future Initiative by addressing the root causes of chronic hunger and poverty and spurring economic growth in a region with incredible resources and arable land
- Strengthening health systems through the Global Health Initiative so that countries can help their children survive, overcome the ancient threat of malaria, give mothers the support they need to give birth safely and turn the tide against the HIV/AIDS epidemic on the continent
- Supporting democracy, human rights, and good governance to help governments fight corruption, expand space for civil society, help citizens choose their leadership and strengthen the trend toward democratization in Africa
- Increasing resilience to climate shocks by helping communities adapt to erratic rainfall and longer, harsher droughts—weather effects we know will hit Africa hardest
- Leading quick responses to humanitarian crises to save lives and help prevent instability and loss, critical in a region prone to destabilizing droughts and food emergencies
The presence of China’s ‘Footprints’ everywhere you go in Africa is big. Perhaps this is proof of China’s active engagement in the development process of Kenya and indeed Africa.
Here are some of the major projects by China in Africa https://english.sina.com/china/2014/0506/697987.html
