Kenya now battlefront for Asian rivals

Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at State House Nairobi where he meet Presidet Uhuru Kenyatta for a news conference on the Sixth Tokyo International Conference of African Development. TICAD. Picture By MAXWELL AGWANDA/STANDARD

Nairobi is now the battle-ground for the scramble for Africa between China and Japan - two Asian arch-rivals in economic and territorial wars.

Yesterday, a Japanese minister told the ongoing TICAD conference that his country is bringing high quality infrastructure to Africa, which is China’s biggest bilateral partner. Kenya is already emerging as a strategic entry point into Africa, a destination Japan chose to make a pitch for its firms as it hopes to check Chinese influence.