- Formed in 2000, FOCAC offers a platform for African countries to develop key infrastructural and other projects rapidly as a way to lift their people out of poverty, as China did decades ago.
- The summit, conducted every three years, seeks to promote win-win cooperation and strengthen friendship.
Image: BRIAN OTIENO
Annabel Wanyina, a single mother of two, has been commuting from Mtwapa in Kilifi county to the Splendid area of the Mombasa CBD every day to tend to her clients for three years now.
She owns an executive barbershop and salon there.
Her travel time has been about three times on average during that time.
From an average of 45 minutes when she first moved to Mtwapa from Barsheba area, it increased to an hour and 30 minutes due to the beginning of the construction of the Kenol-Bamburi Mtambo-Mtwapa stretch.
Then, the construction stopped for almost seven months but has now resumed.
The average travel time has now reduced to about an hour and 10 minutes.
The changes in travel time have necessitated her to also adjust her two son’s waking up time to get to school in Tudor on time.
She says she has to wake up very early to get to her barbershop and salon in time.
“This puts my life at risk because I live far away from the road. So if that construction is done over with, I am sure it will reduce my travel time to even 30 minutes,” she tells the Star.
She is one of hundreds of thousands of Kenyans who hope that President William Ruto’s trip to China will change their lives for the better in the long run.
The Mtwapa-Lights road is part of the Mombasa-Malindi highway that is under construction, and part of the roads that she hopes will benefit from the Sh34 billion loan that Ruto secured from President Xi Jinping.
A chunk of the money will be used to fund the construction of rural roads that serve 70 per cent of the country’s population.
On Thursday, Ruto will join some 52 other heads of state and government at the Great Hall of the People near Tianamen Square in Beijing for the launch of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC)summit.
Here, President Xi will seek to endear China to African countries more through mutually beneficial cooperation agreements that will be highlighted, Kenya being a key beneficiary.
Formed in 2000, FOCAC offers a platform for African countries to develop key infrastructural and other projects rapidly as a way to lift their people out of poverty, as China did decades ago.
The summit, conducted every three years, seeks to promote win-win cooperation, strengthen friendship, offer transparent bilateral ties, enhance people-to-people exchanges, foster understanding, endear equal peer-to-peer consultation and expand consensus between China and African countries.
Key to Ruto’s Kenya Kwanza administration is the extension Standard Gauge Railway and the Rironi-Mau Summit-Eldoret-Malaba dual carriageway projects, which are top priority in his engagement with President Xi.
He said the extension of the SGR from Naivasha to Uganda, Rwanda, DR Congo and Congo Brazzaville will connect the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean.
The Rironi-Mau Summit-Malaba highway is crucial in easing the travel of goods and passengers to western Kenya and eventually to the region.
He also cited the dualling of the Muthaiga-Kiambu road as a priority.
The Chinese have a big hand in some of the ongoing projects, including the Integrated Transport System in Nairobi, equipping technical and vocational education and training colleges, Bosto Dam and the dualling of Northern Bypass in Nairobi.
“I seek China's concurrence in urging our teams to conclude the necessary procedures by the end of the year,” Ruto said at the Great Hall of the People on Tuesday when he met Xi.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said FOCAC has witnessed remarkable achievements, becoming a salient hallmark of the China-Africa cooperation.
This has seen China and Africa trade volume hit a record of USD202.1 billion in 2023, up by almost 11 per cent compared to 2021, hitting a record high for two consecutive years.
“By the end of 2023, the existing direct foreign investment from China to Africa exceeded USD40 billion, making China the largest source of foreign investment to Africa,” Lin Honghong, the deputy director general of the Department of International Relations at China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT), said.
Wang, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said the rise of the Global South represented by China and Africa is profoundly influencing the development of human society.
He said China and Africa have combined their efforts in implementing the Global Development Initiative, the Global Civilization Initiative and the Global Security Initiative.
The Chinese foreign minister noted stronger solidarity and coordination among the 2.8 billion Chinese and African people will surely inject new momentum into the Global South cooperation.
Since the Eighth Ministerial Conference of the FOCAC was held three years ago, the building of the China-Africa community with a shared future has been elevated to a new level, Wang noted, adding that China and Africa have worked together to enhance connectivity, and China has been Africa's largest trading partner for 15 consecutive years.
Chinese and African leaders will explore cooperation and chart the course for the future under the theme of “Joining Hands to Advance Modernization and Build a High-Level China-Africa Community with a Shared Future.”
Since its formation, FOCAC has seen Africa increase more than 20 times and China’s investment in Africa grow by over 100 times, with China being Africa’s largest trading partner for 15 consecutive years.
According to the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, China has helped create more than 1.1 million jobs in Africa.
On Tuesday, Prime CS and Foreign & Diaspora Affairs CS Musalia Mudavadi was among some 53 other Foreign Affairs Ministers from across Africa to lay the groundwork for the FOCAC summit.
Mudavadi and his colleagues said that the African side would work closely with China to make this summit a success, expressing a willingness to deepen comprehensive cooperation with China to realize common development and prosperity.