Kenya: China and US as Development Partner

Ipsos Kenya announced on 4 May 2015 the results of a national survey it recently completed dealing with the perceived impact on Kenya's development by countries outside East Africa. 

The survey asked two questions.  The first was "Which foreign country outside of East Africa do you think is most important to have good relations with in order to achieve our development goals?"  The US at 35 percent was selected by most respondents.  China was second (23 percent), UK third (7 percent), and Japan fourth (6 percent).  Supporters of the Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD) were much more supportive of the US than China while Jubilee supporters were more favorable towards China than the US.

The second question was: "Outside of East Africa, which country, if any, constitutes the biggest threat to Kenya's economic and political development?"  China was first at 28 percent, followed by the US (21 percent), UK (5 percent), and Germany and Japan tied (3 percent). In this case CORD supporters voted at a much higher rate for China than the US and Jubilee supporters voted at a higher rate for the US than for China.

The survey offers an insightful view of CORD and Jubilee supporter foreign policy views.