Funding for the next phase of the Standard Gauge Railway is in jeopardy after China threatened to impose trade sanctions on Kenya in retaliation at a ban on Chinese fish.
Acting ambassador Li Xuhang termed the ban as a “trade war” while issuing warnings that his country could react in the same way it did to US President Donald Trump’s imposition of tariffs on Chinese goods.
While addressing a group of MPs, academics with links to Chinese institutions and other guests at the Chinese embassy on Tuesday, he said that the embassy had a letter from the Fisheries Department cancelling all applications for imports of Chinese fish.
The ban follows President Kenyatta’s remarks recently questioning the suitability of importing Chinese fish at the expense of local fish.
At stake will be funding for the Naivasha-Kisumu phase of the SGR, which has already been delayed after China refused to sign an agreement during President Kenyatta’s visit to the Forum for China-Africa Cooperation in Beijing last month.
Speaking at the SMEs conference at Strathmore University, the President lamented that the imported fish was depriving the local fishermen of their daily jobs.
Acting director-general of the Kenya Fisheries Service Susan Imende on 24th October wrote to fish importers: “This is to notify you that all fish import applications for Oreochromis niloticus Tilapia will not be approved in the country with effect from January 1, 2019.”
The grace period, she explained, would allow importers to clear existing orders.
Although the letter was not specific to Chinese fish, it is instructive that it covered only tilapia, a species only China exports to Kenya in appreciable quantities.
It is also notable that the letter came only 10 days after President Kenyatta spoke about Chinese fish imports.