BEIJING - AUGUST 18: Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (R) greets President of Kenya Mwai Kibaki on August 18, 2005 in Beijing, China. Kibaki arrived in China's capital for a five-day visit.
By ANTONY KARANJA
Kenya is recieving military and intelligence support from China with the help from a corrupt official, a new cable document released by whistleblowing site Wikileaks has claimed. The cable dated February 17, 2010 and posted on London’s Guardian on Wednesday claimed that China was providing weapons to Kenya “in support of its Somalia policies” and also indicated that the US was keeping a close eye on China’s rising influence in Kenya. According to the cable, in January, China via CATIC, a military import-export corporation provided the Government of Kenya with “weapons, ammunition, supplies, and textiles for making uniforms” in support Kenya’s Jubaland initiative. China is also said to be increasing their involvement with Kenyan intelligence community and is providing computers and telecommunications equipment to the Kenyan National Security and Intelligence Service (NSIS). The cable alleges that the level of cooperation between the NCIS and their Chinese counterparts was causing concern after Chinese technicians whose presence was well known through the NCIS started working on a project in the basement of the NSIS headquarters as early as March 2009.
The cable also claims that a corrupt Kenyan intelligence official pressured the Kenyan telecoms company to award a Chinese company a telephone monitoring equipment contract in August last year. The official is said to have received kickbacks from the chinese company while on a trip to China. Another official is said to have received monthly payments of over $5,000 (Sh390,000) which were used for medical payments. The cable also criticised the Chinese government for not addressing the implementation of the reform agenda which the US considered pivotal to Kenya’s future stability and prosperity. It also alleges that the Chinese government turns a blind eye to the flooding of the Kenyan market with Chinese counterfeit goods, such as batteries, which directly damage US market share in the country and that China has not demonstrated any commitment to curb ivory poaching. The document also claimed that Kenyan leadership “may be tempted to move ever closer to China in an effort to shield itself from Western, and principally U.S., pressure to reform.” The cable said China’s involvement in Kenya is likely to grow faster “if oil or gas is found in Kenya,” and also due to Kenya’s strategic location. The cable also stated that collaboration between the US and China in Kenya should be approached cautiously as “there appears to be little dovetailing of our (US) interests to date.” “Given the possibility of a backlash by the Kenyan people against China, perhaps over the issue of imported Chinese labor or mishandling of natural resources, there may be benefits to keeping our distance, at least publicly, from China,” the cable concludes.
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