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Vol 66 No 9

Published 2nd May 2025


Kenya

Ruto pivots from Washington to Beijing

Kenya’s embattled president calculates that being nice to Donald Trump can only get you so far – his meeting with Xi Jinping may have netted billions

For a cash-strapped government and a deeply unpopular president, William Ruto’s five-day trip to China could hardly have gone better. He returned with the promise of new investment but not loans. Heading the catch for Nairobi was a deal on the 675 billion shillings (US$4.5bn) which Ruto says is needed to complete the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) from the Rift Valley town of Naivasha to Malaba on the border with Uganda, vital for regional trade, and a major highway project connecting the Rift Valley to western Kenya. It may eventually run into the Congo-Kinshasa copperbelt where Kenyan investors are eyeing opportunities for financial and other services.

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