Let’s set ground rules on quality of immigrants

In a Kenya hooked to Chinese debt and investments, you should get used to the idea of having a Chinese neighbour, workmate or boss in the near future, in case you don’t have one already.

The population of Chinese migrants in Kenya is larger than that of the Americans, the British, or nationals of any other European country.

As China continues to fund massive infrastructure projects and its companies open businesses here, the number of Chinese will inevitably increase in the coming years.

The question is how well they will live with or fit in the local communities to avoid the danger of xenophobia.

An American photographer who has lived in a Chinese community both in the US and China says she was struck by the warmth and kindness of her neighbours and hosts.

At a past forum in Nairobi, a senior Ministry of Education official told us about the useful lessons students at some local polytechnics had learnt from their Chinese instructors on a skills transfer programme.

The students were particularly impressed by the instructors’ strict work ethic that required that simple workshop rules such as cleaning the equipment and keeping each one of them at the right place were observed.

The best people to seek out for a discussion about the Chinese are the construction workers. These ones have such a long history of working with the Chinese; they have even picked up a few Chinese words and jokes.

Unfortunately, that humane heart and mind of the Chinese community in Kenya has been overshadowed by the uncouth behaviour of a few individuals.

Four Chinese men are currently facing criminal charges in court after a recent viral video showed one of them flogging a Kenyan worker at a Nairobi restaurant.

The incident followed another one in which some Chinese men were earlier captured on video subjecting Kenyan workers on the standard gauge railway to torture.

In the wake of the flogging incident, the Chinese ambassador has come out to condemn his compatriots’ behaviour and indicated the embassy had sought answers from the restaurant’s operators.

But the repetition of the offence suggests that the problem is lying much deeper and probably requires other solutions.

According to my American friend, it all starts with the quality of the labour China has been allowed to export to Kenya.

A majority of Chinese labourers are poorly educated and are hardly exposed to the diversity of life beyond their villages before they are sent here. This lot is naturally prone to foolish acts of racism and criminality.

In the 1980s when the Chinese built the Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani, speculation was rife that there were prisoners among the foreign workers.

Perhaps it is high time Kenya insisted that only Chinese who have attained a certain level of education or skills come to work here.

They should also undergo mandatory Chinese-style re-education to improve the social skills needed to live with local communities.