Kenya has recently acquired $666 million [67.5 billion shillings] from China to build a data centre and a highway. The funding comprises of partnerships with private firms and low interest loans. The comes as Kenyatta and other leaders conclude from the Belt and Road forum in China.
Huawei will be in charge of developing the data centre in Konza with 17.5 billion shillings, while 50 billion shillings will be allocated to the highway in Nairobi, the project will be carried out by China Road and Bridge Corporation.
This deal comes after many have criticized Kenya’s heavy borrowing from China and how it may burden future generations with massive debt, by Kenyatta’s government remains insistent that the infrastructure being built with borrowed funds will catalyze future economic growth.
Kenyatta was not able to obtain the entirety of funds he was seeking for, he pushed for a loan of $3.6 billion for a railway between Naivasha and Kisumu, which will stretch to Uganda to boost trade in that region. This particular loan request was denied by China.
“Why are we focusing ourselves only on one lender? As far as I am concerned, we have a very healthy mix of debt from the multilateral lenders – who are basically the World Bank and the African Development Bank – to bilateral lenders like Japan, China, France, all who are participating and working with us to help us achieve our objectives,” Kenyatta said in an interview with CNN.
