China’s Over 40 Percent Support for Development Drops as Kenyans Regard the US a Better Partner

By Isaac Korir / October 8, 2018

Demand for Semi-detached Homes High in Kenya -HassConsult Build

Kenyans being perturbed on President Uhuru’s meetings with foreign leaders show how eager they are interested in their outcomes and how it will affect them.

Although the meetings might have handed Kenya a chance to benefit from the West and the East, Kenyans still think foreign countries and Kenya’s development is a bittersweet situation.

The latest report from Ipsos regarding the issue shows that majority of Kenyans consider the US as the best and significant development partner compared to China although the latter has established its presence boldly in terms of financing infrastructure in the country.

According to Ipsos, the support for China among the two major parties in Kenya, Jubilee and NASA, has declined. In Jubilee party, 28 percent of the supporters now regard the US as Kenya’s most viable partner for development. On the other hand, 30 percent of these supporters gave China a positive identification, a drop from the previous 44 percent.

In NASA, the previous identification for China and the US as good development partners for Kenya was represented by 24 percent and 32 percent respectively. However, the latest survey shows that the US gap has increased to 49 percent and China dropping to 19 percent.

Notably, even though the US won the contract of constructing a new Mombasa-Nairobi dual carriageway, China is still predominant with infrastructure that doubles it. China’s infrastructure in the country stands at 86 percent compared to the US’s 38 percent.

Nonetheless, the support for the US in terms of grants/loans is more than four times that of China with a record of 49 percent compared to 11 percent.

The images below give a summary of the responses to foreign countries outside eastern Africa that are important for the country to partner with.