China's Economic Diplomacy : Opportunities and Challenges in Kenya

In the early post-colonial period, Chinese infrastructure construction in Africa was motivated by a foreign policy of ideological cold-war considerations, including support for freedom and Panafricanism. However, the end of the bi-polar global order and the rise of China as an emerging economic power subsequently led to a significant swing in its engagement with Africa. China has adopted a more commercial foreign policy. The general objective of this study was to examine the contribution of China's foreign economic policy to development of road infrastructure in Kenya from the year 1985 to 2015. The study has concluded that China's foreign economic policy is beneficial to Kenya although largely in China's favor. Among other recommendations, the author proposes that Kenyans should take advantage of the recently reduced export tariffs offered to them by China as a remedy for China's condition that Kenya provides a market for its goods in exchange for road infrastructure developments. China should also offer more aid to mitigate the deficit and curtail Chinese exports to Kenya to reduce the imbalance as practiced by Japan. Both governments should also ensure capacity building.