Sierra Leone Turns Down Airport Construction Loan From China: Should Kenya Take Notes?

China has been blamed for being on a mission to recolonize African nations through expensive loans that the majority of them might never pay.

Economic analysts say that China is in a mission of taking over strategic investment entities of those countries that will fail to pay back the loans like what is already happening in Zambia and Sri Lanka.

The government of Sierra Leone has officially canceled the construction of an international airport that was being funded by a loan from the Chinese.

According to the government, the country will not be able to repay the 318 million US dollars loan upon its maturity in a move that should send a message to other African countries.

The construction of Mamamah International Airport started in 2017 and is located just outside Freetown and was designed to replace the current airport in the town of Lungi.

As other countries like Sierra Leone think of cutting links with loans from China, Kenya is on the other side with a roaring appetite to borrow from China. China is still Kenya’s largest lender though slightly below the World Bank.

Loans from China are behind the construction of the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) from Mombasa to Nairobi with an extension to Nakuru and then Kisumu already underway.

Kenya’s public debt now stands above 5 trillion shillings and stats show that the debt is likely to rise to 7.2 trillion by 2022. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank have on several occasions warned the country against its appetite for borrowing.

A research done by Ipsos shows that most Kenyans are worried about loans from China and prefer the United States of America for a lending partner than China.