Chinese deals in Kenya often move from signing to construction in less than a year, according to the head of the African country’s investment agency, with most of the agreements signed during Kenyan President William Ruto’s visit to Beijing in 2025 well under way.
John Mwendwa, CEO of the Kenya Investment Authority (InvestKenya), noted that in contrast, projects funded by the West typically took longer due to stricter environmental, social and governance standards and complex regulatory checks.
Western investments may spend years in “long discovery and due diligence” phases, he said in an interview with the South China Morning Post on January 30.
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Mwendwa confirmed that six of the seven agreements signed during Ruto’s visit to Beijing in April were either operational or under construction. “Most of those have already come to fruition because Chinese investors have a very fast conversion rate.”
These included the US$150 million (1 billion yuan) Rongtai Steel processing plant in Machakos, just outside Nairobi; the US$300 million Shandong Jialejia hatching facility in Kajiado, south of the capital; and the China Wu Yi Special Economic Zone in Kilifi, on the Kenyan coast.
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The US$400 million Zonken Group aloe processing and vineyard project in the Rift Valley, along with the Chongqing Shangcheng Apparel Group garment manufacturing plant, also transitioned from proposal to implementation in less than a year.
