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China Perspectives 2014/1 | 2014 Post-1997 Hong Kong The Construction by Chinese Players of Roads and Housing in Nairobi The transfer of town planning practices between China and Kenya David Bénazéraf Translator: Will Thornely Electronic version URL: http://journals.openedition.org/chinaperspectives/6392 DOI: 10.4000/chinaperspectives.6392 ISSN: 1996-4617 Publisher Centre d'étude français sur la Chine contemporaine Printed version Date of publication: 1 March 2014 Number of pages: 51-59 ISSN: 2070-3449 Electronic reference David Bénazéraf, « The Construction by Chinese Players of Roads and Housing in Nairobi », China Perspectives [Online], 2014/1 | 2014, Online since 01 January 2017, connection on 28 October 2019. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/chinaperspectives/6392 ; DOI : 10.4000/chinaperspectives.6392 © All rights reserved Article China perspectives The Construction by Chinese Players of Roads and Housing in Nairobi The transfer of town planning practices between China and Kenya DAVID BÉNAZÉRAF ABSTRACT: As a result of China’s increasing presence in Africa, Chinese urban development projects are increasing in number in the continent’s cities. In Nairobi, Chinese development aid and state companies are helping to build road infrastructure. Chinese property developers, who are for the most part private, are building and selling housing for the middle classes. Urban projects being carried out by public and private Chinese players are helping the development of the Kenyan capital and the exportation of Chinese urban planning and design practices to Africa. They represent a vector of the power of attraction of China. This article sets out the results of a field study. KEYWORDS: China-Africa, South-South cooperation, town planning, housing, infrastructure, urban planning and design practices, glo - balisation, Kenya, Nairobi. ince the 2000s, the presence of Chinese players, both public and pri - Within the general approach to Chinese-African relations, it is therefore vate, has been growing rapidly over the entire African continent, and obvious that there should be slight differences in terms of the specific re - Sin a highly varied range of sectors. Relations between the Chinese lationships fostered by the Chinese state and the various Chinese players, state and its African partners have been strengthened with the creation of whether public or private, with the players in African countries. China be - the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, (1) and China now occupies a leading came the number one bilateral donor to Kenya in 2011, and since 2013 has position in many African countries. Consolidating its presence there has been the main source of direct foreign investment there. Within the space often been described as a way of safeguarding its supply of raw materials of a decade, it has become a major player, competing with the country’s to feed domestic demand. Natural resources have been regarded as playing historical partners and donors. (9) In its role as the economic centre of the a structuring role in Chinese-African relations, (2) which helps explain the region with a generally stable political situation, Kenya is, according to fundamentally North-South structure of commercial relations between the Patrick Mutua Kioko, a secondary headquarters for Chinese economic play - two continents, with African countries exporting natural or agricultural re - sources and importing manufactured goods, accordingly limiting the devel - 1. Ian Taylor, The Forum on China-Africa Cooperation , New York, Routledge, 2011. opment of local industry and fostering a rentier mentality. (3) 2. Chris Alden, China in Africa , London, New York, Zed Books, 2007. The acceleration in Chinese-African relations has exacerbated the con - 3. Jean-Raphaël Chaponnière and Jean-Jacques Gabas (eds), Le temps de la Chine en Afrique: enjeux et réalités au sud du Sahara (China in Africa: Issues and realities south of the Sahara), Paris, frontation between donors on a global scale. China is described as an emerg - Karthala/Gemdev, 2012. ing outside player that has come to interfere in relations between old 4. Li Anshan, “Zhongguo dui fei zhengce de tiaoshi yu zhuanbian” (On the adjustment and transfor - colonised peoples and old colonial empires (4) despite its long-established mation of China’s Africa policy), Xiya feizhou (West Asia and Africa), Vol. 8, pp. 11-20. (5) (6) 5. Jean-Raphaël Chaponnière, “Un demi-siècle de relations Chine-Afrique, Evolution des analyses” policy of cooperation on the continent. The “Chinafrica” concept sus - (Half a century of Chinese-African relations: Changing analyses), Afrique contemporaine , No. 228, tains a certain number of myths, for example that of the mass importation 2008, pp. 35-48. of a cheap Chinese workforce. However, China’s presence takes on a diverse 6. This neologism is a reference to the term “Françafrique,” which refers to France’s relationship with Africa, and opens the way to a post-colonialist and essentialist reading of relations between China range of forms that require different combinations of tools and strategies and Africa. It is therefore appropriate to detach oneself from the historical context of colonisation, (aid, trade, investment) depending on the specific context of each coun - and to consider “China” not as a monolithic bloc, but as a diverse group of players. try. (7) The Chinese are not merely buyers of raw materials; increasingly, they 7. Deborah Braütigam, The dragon’s gift: The real story of China in Africa , Oxford, New York, Oxford University press, 2009. occupy the position of investors. (8) Despite certain constants, their actions 8. Jean-Bernard Veron, “Éditorial,” Afrique contemporaine , No. 228, 2008, pp. 5-9. vary in the 49 African countries with which China maintains diplomatic re - 9. Emma Mawdsley, “China and Africa: Emerging Challenges to the Geographies of Power,” Geography lations. Compass , Vol. 3, No. 1, 2007, p. 421. N o. 2014/1 • china perspectives peer-reviewed article 51 Article ers in East Africa. (10) The two countries maintain relations in a variety of shown an increase of 4% annually since the 1980s. Nairobi has also expe - fields, including agriculture, health, tourism, the media, geothermal energy rienced strong demographic growth, and the capital had 3.23 million inhab - and electricity distribution, road infrastructure, and city services. Compared itants in 2010, compared with 400,000 in 1963. Its population is expected with 2002, when there were very few Chinese people in Kenya, approxi - to double and cross the six-million threshold by 2025. (15) The city was mately 10,000 live there now. (11) founded by the British on the high plateaus of East Africa in 1899 as a In Nairobi, various types of Chinese companies and companies of Chinese stopover town on the railway linking the east coast to Uganda. Like many origin, both public and private, contribute to urban development by construct - cities on the continent, it has experienced urban development on a scale ing buildings (housing and offices), roads, and water conveyance infrastructure, that is difficult to control. and modernising Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. The aim of this article In terms of urban transport, the explosion in the number of personal ve - is to analyse the ways in which Chinese players contribute to urban production hicles has led to a situation of near-gridlock. The road network inherited in the metropolis of Nairobi. Within the general context of studies on China- from the colonial period is no longer suitable and provides no way of by - Africa relations, it will adopt a micro approach by studying the players that passing the city, which means that containers heading from the port in support these relations, based on the results of a field study. Two aspects of Mombasa to the inland regions of Kenya and adjoining countries still travel urban development have been considered: the creation of major road infra - through the city centre. Nairobi’s municipal road network faces major chal - structure and the building of housing for the solvent middle classes. lenges in terms of redimensioning and organising flows. Chinese develop - As far as urban analysis is concerned, we have attempted, in the tradition ment aid and Chinese state companies are currently helping to expand and of James Ferguson (12) and Jennifer Robinson, (13) to adopt a postcolonial read - construct a number of major roads in the city. ing that steers clear of the differences between Western cities and Third As far as new housing is concerned, the national demand was estimated World cities. Indeed, the urbanisation of Nairobi has been a response to spe - in 2010 at 206,000 new units annually, including 82,000 in urban areas cific dynamics that are neither the result of a teleological process towards (40%). Yet actual production fails to exceed 50,000 units annually, repre - a point already reached by and equating to Western modernity, nor condi - senting a shortfall of 156,000 homes each year. (16) We are going to focus tioned by so-called African archaism. In this article, we will focus on urban specifically on group housing buildings resulting from property develop - planning and design practices or, in other words, on the forms and processes ment, the only segment of the housing industry, to our knowledge, that of urban production, and not on the social reception of projects. currently involves the Chinese. Although growing rapidly, it remains a mi - Studying Chinese actions also involves an approach detached from the usual nority segment for three reasons. First of all, urban housing accounts for categories of analysis that are compartmentalised into development aid, only 32% of Kenya’s homes, since the majority of the housing stock is trade, and investments. As identified by Emma Mawdsley, the notion of South- spread over rural areas. Secondly, housing continues to be a largely infor - South cooperation or, in other words, cooperation between countries of the mal sector in Nairobi, and involves few registration procedures or planning South, encompasses many forms of interaction between developing countries: permission applications.

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