Views divided over role of Africa

A Swahili proverb - Figa moja, haliinjiki chungu - states that it takes more than one person to get things done. Likewise, many international relations and economics pundits think Kenya needs both China and the US to achieve its development goals.

The proverb seems more relevant than ever in light of Barack Obama's first visit to his father's homeland as US president, set for July. The first US African-American president is to co-host the sixth Global Entrepreneurial Summit with President Uhuru Kenyatta in Nairobi on July 25 and 26.

But apart from the emotional pull the visit represents, and what is seen as a thawing of relations between Kenya and the United States, many experts say Kenya is in the position of benefiting from having the attention of two superpowers.

Julius Ole Sunkuli, former Kenyan ambassador to China, says Kenya needs to draw from strong relations with both China and the US to meet challenges. Xin Songxin / China Daily

David Kikaya says Kenya's partnership with China is not going to discourage the US or other nations from seeking to invest in Kenya. Photos provided to China Daily

"To reach the envisioned annual growth of 10 percent, we cannot choose one friend against the other. The day we do that is the day we lose out," says Julius Ole Sunkuli, former Kenyan ambassador to China.

Kenya needs to draw from strong relations with both China and the US to meet developmental challenges such as security issues, unemployment, infrastructure deficits, market access and a stagnating manufacturing sector, observers say.

"We turned to China because of their businesslike attitude. If we forget that fact, we become our own enemies. Our newly gained position requires tact to create an enabling environment for China, the US and all other interested partners drawn by this visit," Sunkuli says.

The former diplomat and lawyer says Kenya has achieved this new footing largely through economic reforms and its continued partnership with China. Kenya has a lot to offer, he says, and therefore it cannot be ignored.

Similar sentiments are expressed by David Kikaya, a professor and coordinator of international relations studies at the United States International University Africa. "Kenya's hidden wealth has been unearthed, and the West would like to participate in the country's renaissance," he says.

Kenya's partnership with China is not going to discourage the US or other nations from seeking to invest in Kenya, experts say.

"Look at our history, education orientation, consumption patterns and professional standards. We are still interwoven in a cobweb of sorts."

Kikaya previously served as the head of the Kenyan mission to UN-Habitat, the settlement program, and is founder of the Research Institute for Peace, Policy and International Affairs, a think tank in Kenya.

Kikaya says Kenya will continue to hold allure for the West. "Kenya isconsidered the continent's economic engine, and return on investments is high. We are the darling of foreign direct investment."

In January, Fortune magazine rated the country as the seventh top destination for foreign direct investment. Last year, Knight Frank also ranked Kenya as a hotspot for luxury brands.

Obama's previous visits to South Africa, Ghana, Senegal and Tanzania elicited positive reactions. "Africa has had a stronger engagement with the US compared with previous administrations," Kikaya says. "African-American elites are taking a second look at Africa and most of them are coming as tourists."

Kikaya says Obama's visit is long overdue. "I am sure it will reaffirm bilateral relations more than deepen them. Kenya-US relations have reached their bottom, so this visit will consolidate, reaffirm and cultivate those relations."

At the same time, the rapprochement will not touch Kenya-China relations, he says. "We have already established visible inroads with the East, and here I mean China because I do not see India or Russia in the picture. A lot is already under the bridge, and re-entry of the US will not stir any diplomatic waters," he says.

Kikaya says the launch of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in 2000 gave the Asian country the impetus needed to penetrate Africa. "Issues enshrined in this initiative have increased their pace in penetrating the continent in consultation with African heads of state, who favor its foreign policy of noninterference and win-win engagement," he says. "Beijing knowingly believes that a country knows best how to run itself."

Referring to the US, Sunkuli says: "Historically, we are good friends. But the US distanced itself from us when we could not meet its stringent conditions of governance back in the 1990s. We therefore turned to China, whose win-win policy was friendly, to our mutual benefit."

Sunkuli says that under the China-Africa cooperation initiative, African governments have been given the necessary motivation to meet the developmental agenda while also speeding up the integration process. "The forum is all-inclusive and Africa is able to spell out the terms of engagement."

Many people see it as a hybrid of the African Growth and Opportunity Act approved by the US Congress in 2000, which provides preferential access to goods from selected sub-Saharan countries to the US market.

African governments enjoy the impartial approach when dealing with China within the forum. Kenya in particular has found and solidified its geographical, economical and political clout in the region.

"You simply have to look at the engagements between China and Kenya since the forum was established in 2000 to know the seriousness with which the bilateral relations between the two countries are regarded. It is rather obvious that Kenya is China's preferred partner," says Philip Mwanika, a senior lecturer in international relations and peace studies at Daystar University, which has a campus near Nairobi.

This year saw Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi choose Nairobi as his first international visit. It has been tradition since 1991 for high-ranking Chinese officials to make Africa their first destination every year. Kenya has been in China's sights since former president Jiang Zemin's 1996 Africa visit, the first by a Chinese president to Africa. Kenya also hosted China's former president Hu Jintao in 2005 and Premier Li Keqiang last year.

Kenya's ports are included in the Belt and Road Initiative, including the Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, which would use trade and investment to boost ties primarily along ancient trade routes from China to Central and South Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Europe. The maritime link would touch Mombasa and then extend via the Red Sea to Egypt. This move not only envisions Kenya as an export-oriented country, but also a key link to development in inland nations such as South Sudan.

Nevertheless, in May, a survey published by Kenyan media showed 35 percent of those polled named the United States as key to achieving the nation's developmental goals, compared with 23 percent for China.

"From a technical angle, Kenya is already feeling the effects of having China as its partner," Mwanika says. "The Asian country has been able to engage very well in a quiet manner, and that may be the reason why people do not readily identify with it. China does not chest-thump but wants to be judged by its work.

"When you unravel the cultural metrics, you will understand how China engages in a personal, national and state manner. We are therefore not only looking at China engaging with the Kenyan state, but also with a whole civilization."

He says China played a big part in Kenya becoming a middle-income economy. This has been furthered through the awarding of scholarships to Kenyans to pursue technical and advanced courses at renowned Chinese universities. Also, the large number of Kenyan entrepreneurs visiting Guangzhou, an important trading city in southern China, has led to the launch of new routes by airlines, while numerous technical exchanges are taking place in the corporate sector led by Huawei.

"The expansion of our housing sector can be linked to importation of materials from China. Education programs directly contribute to our knowledge economy. I believe this is the time our decentralized governments can embark on paradiplomacy with their Chinese counterparts to find areas of mutual cooperation that directly impact peoples lives. China has a lot to offer," he says.

Michael Ndegwa, a research analyst at the Africa Policy Institute, an international diplomacy think tank, says a revolution has taken place in the renewable energy sub-sector through the use of Chinese technology. "I was involved in a survey that revealed Kenyans acknowledge the gains brought forth by Chinese goods in their day-to-day lives.

"Quality has been debatable, but it is improving as citizens utilize simple devices in their entrepreneurial ventures," says the research analyst, noting that goods from the West "are presumed to be of high quality but are beyond the reach of many Kenyans."

Ndegwa says he does not think the US will edge out China, but that their efforts will instead be complementary. "The US and China are operating on two parallel tracks. I believe that the former is back in Kenya purely on security matters.

"Kenya shares a bandwagon with the US in terms of war against terrorism." The analyst says that with the escalation of global insecurity, the US is looking at launching a meticulous and effective campaign to contain al-Shabab in neighboring Somalia using Kenya.

"Somalia is on the US radar and Kenya has its forces there. We know the US is a long-term Kenyan partner in terms of financial, capacity building and technological assistance using equipment, such as drones that are based in Djibouti. The US may want to relocate this base closer, just at the doorstep of terrorism," says Ndegwa.

Al-Shabab took credit for the April 2 attack on Kenya's Garissa University College, in which 147 died, the 2013 Westgate shopping mall attack in Nairobi that killed at least 67, and other attacks.

The beating that Kenya has taken from terrorism has severely damaged the hospitality sector, a major foreign exchange earner. Economists have complained of the escalating cost of doing business as the country boosts defense spending rather than using the money for developmental programs.

China continues to take a different approach to promoting peace and security in the region. This is through peacekeeping missions under the auspices of the UN in neighboring conflict-ridden areas such as South Sudan.

China has been involved in shuttle diplomacy to promote peaceful conflict resolution in Somalia, where Kenya brokered a peace treaty last year that created the transitional federal government. The TFG battled al-Shabab and gained full control of the southern part of Somalia. In 2012, the TFG became the federal government of Somalia.

"By engaging with regional bodies such as the UN and African Union, China promotes its foreign policy of noninterference while cementing the UN's neutral role in these conflict areas," says Joseph Kioi Mbugua, a researcher at International Peace Support Training Centre, initially part of the Kenyan Defense Staff College and now an independent East African research, training and education center in military and peacekeeping issues.

China is also the biggest contributor to UN peacekeeping missions in Africa among the five permanent members of the Security Council. "This means that they support resolutions that positively impact Africa and are not intrusive to a state's sovereignty," says Mbugua.

He says there have been some misgivings about China's preferred mode of operations. Government-to-government engagements are not so visible to the people, who may associate it with bureaucracy and a lack of accountability. But, according to Mbugua, China is a relatively new player in Africa and prefers to deal with a more secure hand. "Governments are easy to engage with and all citizens, regardless of location benefit from projects such as roads. It is still in a learning process," Mbugua says.

Kenya's private sector particularly feels left out in terms of big contracts. "Chinese participation in the construction sector has increased competition and quality. Although the local private sector is robust, I have yet to see a formidable partnership with the Chinese," says Vimal Shah, chairman of Kenya Private Sector Alliance.

He thinks there may be a culture clash that can be remedied, for there is merit in partnership in terms of learning and adapting to the local terrain. "I think the China-Africa Development Fund promotes this practice, but it is yet to take root on the ground."

Shah sees the arrival of the US private sector as an alternative. In 2014, the United States invited African heads of state to a summit that emphasized the use of investment rather than aid in its future engagements with Africa. The shift in policy was evident with an announcement of a $14 billion investment pledge by US companies in Africa.

Ferdinand Othieno, a lecturer at the School of Finance and Applied Economics at Strathmore University in Nairobi, says that the decision, together with the hosting of the Global Entrepreneurial Summit, coincides perfectly with the entrepreneurial spirit sweeping across Kenya.

"A survey by the British Council showed that 65 percent of graduates interviewed want to venture into entrepreneurship," says the economist. "This therefore calls for the government to be innovative and proactive in opening markets and creating an enabling environment."

He says China and the US have different things to offer. "While China promotes its mammoth manufacturing and technology base, the US is keen on ensuring effective institutions are in place. This is the perfect mix that will lengthen the investment cycle that has been punctuated by political upheavals," says Othieno.

The economist believes that public-private partnership policies will be promoted, encouraging the private sector from both China and the US to participate in bidding for large government contracts.

"The local private sector will also benefit as they will be courted by the two. This will help to build capacity and develop the private sector, as opposed to choking them with deals that increase the probability of projects stalling."

That will move the country further from aid dependency. Patrick Maluki, a lecturer at the Institute of Diplomacy and International Studies at the University of Nairobi, sees problems with many aid programs. "There has been heated debate on whether aid works in Africa. I believe it has not been well targeted and has several shortcomings," he says.

lucymorangi@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily Africa Weekly 06/26/2015 page6)