Kenyan traders raise concern over Chinese business infiltration in country, calls for prohibiting permits

Concerned over the influx of Chinese nationals operating businesses in the country, undercutting local traders with ultra-low prices and driving them out of business, they called for prohibiting issuance of permits to Chinese nationals, reported Citizen Digital. The traders, under the auspices of a group called the Indigenous Capital Protection Association, have sued the government, protesting the influx of Chinese traders in Kenya.

The traders want the Immigration Services department to stop issuing Chinese nationals with employment and business permits, reported Nation. They now want the court to issue orders prohibiting the Director of Kenya Citizens and Foreign Nationals Management Services from issuing permits to Chinese nationals.

As per them, the government has encouraged, aided, and abetted the influx of Chinese nationals into the country, and their establishment of economic activities has jeopardized the survival of their businesses and the livelihoods of over 2,000,000 Kenyans and over six million dependents. They also want the court to stop China Square Mall from importing and selling merchandise from Chinese manufacturers and distributors, reported Citizen Digital.

Chinese-owned China Square Mall is among more than 40 trading companies entangled in a lawsuit seeking to halt the operations of foreign entities selling low-priced imported goods on the Kenyan market. The suit before the High Court has been filed by a group of Kenyan traders concerned over the Chinese allegedly selling everyday goods like curtains imported from China on average 50 per cent cheaper than those brought in by their local counterparts, reported Nation.

The court action comes a month after China Square, which is based at Kenyatta University on the outskirts of Nairobi, was reopened following the dismissal of a counterfeit complaint against it. The businessmen who form the indigenous capital protection association argue that the Competition Authority of Kenya should conduct an investigation and file a report in court to determine whether the China Square Mall is engaging in predatory pricing to drive competitors out.

They also claimed that the Investment Promotion Authority has been illegally issuing investment certificates to Chinese traders and economic migrants in order for them to engage in economic activities that not only undermine Kenya’s sustainable development and prejudice its citizens, but also violate the conditions set out in Section 4 of the Investment Promotion Act. “In view of the increasing numbers of Chinese hawkers, shopkeepers, Route Eleven (11) traders, small-scale retailers, wholesalers and distributors in Nairobi’s Business District East of Tom Mboya Street comprising of River Road, Kirinyaga Road, Kamukunji and Gikomba areas among others, the Applicant are convinced that the process of issuing permits to Chinese citizens has been so corrupted or otherwise compromised by the Kenya Chinese Chambers of Commerce and other Chinese nationals operating businesses in Kenya,” read the court papers.

There is no data available to show how many Chinese traders or people are in Kenya, but there has been growing anti-Chinese sentiment in recent years, reported Nation. This has been partly fuelled by alleged racist incidents involving individual Chinese people in Kenya and perceptions of Chinese traders taking businesses and jobs from locals.