Africa needs optimists to spur change

By ERIC NG’ENO

Today, we proudly welcome into our country a true friend of Kenya and one of our most important partners in the journey to national economic transformation.

The state visit by the Premier of the People’s Republic of China is a great honour and a strong message as well. President Uhuru Kenyatta’s first tour outside Africa after his inauguration was to China on a state visit.

Africa is no longer jostling to be seen, or elbowing for space in the great scheme of international relations.

She has been exploited and betrayed countless times in history, in the name of international or bilateral relations, and the particulars of these treacheries are well documented.

For this reason, Africa knows who her true friends are.

Africa is rising. Kenya is diligently laying down a transformational framework of breathtaking scope and pace. The Jubilee Alliance believes that it can, and will happen.

Last year, the Government of China conducted us on a tour of the city of Shenzhen. It is a massive, ultra-modern metropolis humming with the power of enterprise, innovation and industry on a mind-boggling scale.

In 1978, the Third Plenary of the Eleventh CPC Central Committee inaugurated China’s programme of Reform and Opening-up.

In 1979, the late miracle worker Deng Xiaoping mooted his legendary vision to establish special economic zones. Shenzhen at the time was a mountainous fishing village of about 28,000 people. Xiaoping broke ground for the new city and afterwards, the mountains were literally pulverised to give way to the rise of a city that puts Hong Kong well and truly in the shade.

Africa needs strong partners to catalyse its transformation. It requires optimists who know that spectacular change can be delivered in a few years of hard work, not censors and critics who wish to patronisingly parcel out development in miserly morsels. We want to live in the future. In China, Shenzen is the future delivered today.

When the Chinese state delegation will be engaging our government in our transformative agenda, all sides will have the opportunity to assess whether what we have is ambitious enough.

The writer is the Director of messaging at the Presidency