China’s Belt and Road Initiative and Infrastructural Relations in East Africa Region: Case Studies of Kenya and Uganda
Abstract
This study analyzes China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and infrastructural relations in
East Africa Region using case studies from Kenya and Uganda. In Kenya, the Lamu Port
South Sudan Ethiopia Transport Corridor (LAPSSET Corridor) and the Standard Gauge
Railway (SGR) were selected, while in Uganda, the Entebbe Express Highway and the
Karuma Hydropower Project were selected. Indeed, infrastructure deficit renders both
Kenya and Uganda unable to minimize commercial expenditures and compete with the rest
of the international community for FDIs. This study shows how Africa’s infrastructure
relations with China make interdependence relations inevitable because the gaps to be
addressed by the developing countries (Kenya and Uganda) are too expensive for them.
The study appreciates a nexus between infrastructure relations and distance decay where,
the closer the BRI is to developing states (Kenya and Uganda), the higher likelihood that
the foreign policies of the latter will guide them to address existing infrastructural gaps
through capitalizing on their relations with China. Consequently, this informs the
infrastructural economic interdependence between China and the Eastern African states.
Kenya and Uganda are benefiting from infrastructural relations with China because of the
distance decay between them and the BRI. Said differently, the closer the Chinese
aspirations are to those of poor African countries, the higher likelihood that the latter will
‘look East’, and hence the intensification of infrastructural relations. China’s global
strategy in the BRI is to link Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Europe; domestically it will
economically open up her North Western marginalized frontiers, while politically deterring
secession movements. As seen throughout this study, China’s ambition thus resonates with
the strategies of both Kenya and Uganda to minimize their domestic distance decays by
tapping their dead capitals into their respective economies.
Publisher
University of Nairobi
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United StatesUsage Rights
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/Collections
- Faculty of Arts [607]
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