The Kenyan government is reportedly paving the way for China to build a new city just outside of the capital. Some 100 Chinese investors aim to build roughly 20 skyscrapers in the enclave, which is expected to become a shopping destination for products from China and other countries.
Just one of three similar developments planned around Nairobi, the $750 million “Chinese-controlled economic zone” will include luxury residences designed to match the “glamour of Dubai,” according to Construction Week Online.
There are a lot of Chinese in Kenya. There are a lot of Chinese all over Africa, but Kenya – eager to become East Africa’s most powerful nation – has laid many of its resources bare to investors in exchange for infrastructural development and a smattering of social and development programs.
The Lamu Port is one such initiative. Under dubious terms, China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) won tender to build a super port in a UNESCO-protected island on Kenya’s upper east coast. Here many people still live very close to the land and sea, and unspoiled mangroves and coral reefs are bound to be devastated.
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(A subsidiary of this company has been given carte blanche to build a similar port and coal-burning plant in the equally beautiful Porthead Bight Protected Area – Chinese influence reaches across all reaches of the globe.)
On the one hand, the project along the Athi River in Machakos County promises to bring jobs to local people and improve their quality of life. But in reality, the Chinese typically import their own engineers and only employ locals for the most brutish of jobs; we won’t be surprised to find Kenyans dispossessed to make room for the foreign influx.
Chinese expatriates are often blamed for killing the local wildlife for food, not to mention their appetite for poached ivory and rhino horn, so perhaps Kenyans will be relieved to know that they will have access to products they are accustomed to.
But they won’t be impressed with how Kenya’s Vision 2030 Development Plan is likely to further overtax natural resources, create more pollution, and generate more traffic.
Construction is supposed to break ground later this year.
Image of Dubai skyline / Shutterstock
Author: Tafline Laylin
As a tour leader who led “eco-friendly” camping trips throughout North America, Tafline soon realized that she was instead leaving behind a trail of gas fumes, plastic bottles and Pringles. In fact, wherever she traveled – whether it was Viet Nam or South Africa or England – it became clear how inefficiently the mandate to re-think our consumer culture is reaching the general public. Born in Iran, raised in South Africa and the United States, she currently splits her time between Africa and the Middle East. Tafline can be reached at tafline (at) greenprophet (dot) com.
Let’s call a spade a spade.Chinese have the expertise to configure and rewire.
Check out our highways.The quality and design of our newly done roads and bypasses has totally transformed Nairobi and its suburbs.The tattered old dilapidated Thika and Mombasa roads and not to mention Westlands Kilelesha potholed tapered roads have been eclipsed by Chinese engineers.
If this ground infrastructure is as mesmerizing,what won’t the 20 skyscrappers and lavish residentials do for our face and economy as a country. A business hub equivalent that mirrors Dubai means streams of foreign exchange income from investor tourists.
Vision 2030 cannot be entrusted to engineers who will not visualize beyond their pockets and families.
You seem very bitter about the chinese putting up infrastucture in Kenya. Why? You even go as far as talking on behalf on the Kenyans themselves. Did you conduct any interviews to find out what the Kenyans think? I would assure you that if you did you would have found out that China is very welcome in Kenya. They are helping transform the continent in no way ever imagined. China capital+African resources= unimaginable wealth