Chinese presence in Africa: Kenya’s political elite perceptions.

Abstract

The paradigm of cooperation for peaceful development adopted by the Chinese government in the early 2000s led to the projection of the country over the different parts of the globe, which witnessed the rise of China as one of the great world powers. The exponential influx of Chinese goods and investments into the African continent is something that draws the attention of researchers, many of whom seek to understand the perception of African societies about China's presence on the continent. In this article, we sought to understand the perception of Kenya's political elite about China, using sentiment analysis tools applied to parliamentary speeches. The results obtained corroborate the researches previously developed on the perceptions of Kenyan civil society. In general, the feeling of the political elite towards China varies from neutral to positive.