Kenyans Name China as Country's Most Important Foreign Partner ahead of the US

A high number of Kenyans have named China as the most important foreign partner to Kenya, a recently released survey has shown.

In the study carried out by Ipsos, 36 percent of Kenyans interviewed felt that China was the most important friend of Kenya. The United States came second at 26 per cent while 5 per cent of respondents said South Africa was the most important partner.

44 percent of the respondents who mentioned China as an important partner were Jubilee party supporters, while 24 percent are Opposition backers. On the other hand, 33 percent of opposition supporters approved good relations between Kenya and US, compared to 23 percent of those in the ruling party's camp.

“A third of NASA supporters think it is most important to have good relations with the US ten per cent more than Jubilee supporters,” 
Ipsos Research Analyst Tom Wolf said during the release of the poll results on Friday.

“However 20 per cent more of Jubilee supporters think China is the way to go,” he observed.

Those who vouched for China cited economic benefits, while those in support of the US gave fight against terrorism as the reason.

“Fourteen per cent more of those who mention China, mention economic benefit. In fact, 95 per cent of the mentions for China are tied to economic benefit,” the research guru explained.

“With US there’s a little more variety: anti-terrorism 6 per cent, election support three per cent, anti-corruption effort two per cent etc,” he said.

The survey was conducted between 4th and 12th March and interviewed 2,003 respondents nationwide. The study has a margin of error of +/- 2.16 per cent and confidence level of 95 per cent.