Inside China Kenyans Rarely See

The useful part

Kenyans.co.ke Skip to main content --> Inside China Kenyans Rarely See --> --> by Samuel Mwanawanjuguna on Thursday, 24 September 2026. 7:48 pm A busy intersection in Beijing's financial district, September 10, 2026. --> For years, much of Kenya's coverage of China has focused on the country's government, infrastructure projects, trade and growing influence in Africa.

How it works

• The first impression was the scale of ordinary life in markets, restaurants, trains and streets, people were working, travelling, shopping, eating and spending time with family and friends.
• The scale was different, but the basic concerns, work, family, food, transport, and making a living were familiar.
• Chinese enterprises employ thousands of Kenyans, while Kenyans live, study and work in China.
• He explained how he spent his free time with friends and family, including playing card games, a pastime we noticed in several places we visited.
• "But I prefer to work," he said through Google Translate, which had become a crucial partner during the trip.

What to take from it

Yet people on both sides often become visible in coverage only when there is a dispute, a crime, a business development or another event that makes them newsworthy. We report on presidents and state visits, roads and railways, Chinese companies and disputes involving Chinese nationals. A two-week journey through China raised a different question, where are the Chinese people in our China stories?

Example or evidence

• The experience was a reminder that technology in China is not confined to highways, trains and large infrastructure projects.
• The country is a government and an economic power, but it is also commuters, workers, traders, families, consumers and young people building ordinary lives.
• Kenyans.co.ke toured China for two weeks as part of a seminar for Kenyan media managers and editors organised in collaboration with Kenya Editors Guild (KEG), covering Beijing, Ningbo and Jiaxing, with a...
• A replica of the Red Boat at the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) museum in Jiaxing, Zhejiang province, where the founding First National Congress of the CPC concluded in August 1921.

Details worth keeping

The relationship between Kenya and China is already a people-to-people relationship as much as it is a government and commercial one. In Guangzhou, and later in Beijing, Ningbo and Jiaxing, we encountered people simply going about their daily lives. They wanted to know about Kenya, while we wanted to understand their lives.

Related coverage

• Kenyans: Nairobi has been ranked as the second most congested city in Africa, with commuters spending roughly 53 to 63 minutes per trip sitting in traffic.
• Scmp: Mrima Hill, a sacred site about 65km (40 miles) southwest of Mombasa on Kenya's Indian Ocean coast, is emerging as a new front in the US-China rivalry for critical minerals.
• Thediplomat: Xi's U.S. visit was extensively covered by official outlets. It's much harder to gauge public opinion or even interest.