China now owns more than 72% of Kenya's foreign debt, Quartz's Abdi Latif Dahir reports.
Why it matters: Kenya is one example of China's larger strategy to win influence across the world. Beijing accrues massive amounts of a smaller, poorer country's external debt by offering funding for infrastructure projects, then leverages that debt for influence in trade, domestic politics and beyond.
By the numbers:
The backdrop: The Kenyan government is defending the heavy borrowing from China and other countries as necessary to support key infrastructure projects, Dahir writes, but the public is skeptical and thinks the government is being naive about the strings attached to Chinese money, according to Quartz Africa editor Yinka Adegoke.
Go deeper: China's debt-trap diplomacy is spreading across Africa
