Let personal flaws not harm nations’ ties

Mr Liu Jiaqi. "Every one, every Kenyan... like a monkey, even Uhuru Kenyatta. All of them," he said. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Contact between Kenyans and the Chinese dates back thousands of years, when the first seafaring traders from China docked at the Kenyan coast.
  • Several Chinese firms, largely in the manufacturing and construction sectors, are active in Kenya.

A video released online recently shows a Chinese national, Liu Jiaqi, making derogatory remarks about Kenyans and their leadership

Naturally, there was an outcry and widespread calls for him to be punished — justifiably so. I am glad that Mr Liu was called to account by his employer and the host nation for the unfortunate transgression.

Such aberrations by an individual, who was clearly acting alone, and expressing his own thoughts, should not be allowed to sully the good relations that the peoples of China and Kenya have built over the years and from which they derive a lot of mutual benefits.

Contact between Kenyans and the Chinese dates back thousands of years, when the first seafaring traders from China docked at the Kenyan coast. They left an indelible mark and their influence is still visible in the goods they brought and even genetically.

TRADE

Trade has emerged as a major theatre of contact between the two nations. Recently, President Uhuru Kenyatta led a strong delegation to Beijing and signed a number of agreements with his hosts, a development that is expected to further deepen and cement the bilateral relations.

China is a key trading partner for Kenya and vice versa, evident in a lot of movement of factors of production between the two countries, especially labour.

Several Chinese firms, largely in the manufacturing and construction sectors, are active in Kenya. Nearly all have employed Kenyans.

For some of the necessary skill-sets, however, they have had to import labour from China. This is very critical for technology transfer and the on-the-job training of local cadres.

There are hundreds of Chinese, mostly in middle- and top-level management, working on various projects and enterprises.

DIFFERENCES EXIST

Cultural differences between Kenya and China exist. The Chinese workplace tends to be a more strictly controlled compared to Kenya’s. This is largely due to historical circumstances.

While China has embraced collectivism, organisation, order and rule, Kenya tends to be freer with a lot of accent put on civil liberties, including the right of employees to organise.

Kenyans have also had contact with people from other countries for longer compared to the Chinese, some of whom could be on their first overseas stint.

Further, the language barrier has only served to magnify the differences as opposed to the commonalities.

Therefore, the importance of cultivating genuine co-operation among employees cannot be gainsaid.

Naturally, in a set-up with two opposing cultures and ways of life, there is bound to be some active tension.

NEGATIVE ENERGY

Unfortunately, this sometimes finds expression in breaches such as the one mentioned above, though that is the exception rather than the rule.

Whenever this happens, we must correctly locate individual culpability and seek answers.

The temptation to heap the foibles and failures of one person on an entire community or race is often strong.

But we must not let rabid stereotyping and negative energy, of the type we have seen recently on social media, compromise what we have worked so hard to build.

Mr Troy is the CEO, Sonlink Limited. [email protected]