NAIROBI, Kenya—A lawmaker from Kenya’s ruling party has proposed limiting foreign involvement in public contracts after what he said was an outcry about an influx of Chinese businesses driving out local companies.
China has become Kenya’s biggest trading partner, accounting for 17 percent of the East African nation’s annual trade by value, or more than $4 billion, heavily tilted in China’s favor. That imbalance, together with increasing borrowing from China, which is estimated at 21 percent of Kenya’s total public debt of 2.51 trillion shillings ($24.67 billion), has begun to ruffle feathers among Kenyans.
