The speaker of Kenya's parliament Moses Wetang'ula said last week that he expects China's fast development over the past three decades to provide experience to African countries, helping enhance quality of living in the continent and bringing positive results across various fields.
Wetang'ula made the remarks in an interview with China Media Group (CMG) in north China's Tianjin Municipality, where he attended the 2026 Legislators Forum for Friendly Exchanges.
He said that the forum provides a platform for countries to compare their development experience and to strengthen cooperation with China.
"This forum is important to us. China, you know, is a very close friend in the emerging economies of Africa. There's hardly an African country where there is no Chinese presence. And the same with other developing nations, because we have friends here from the Global South, from parts of [the] Mediterranean [region], from Asia, from South America, who feel the same. When we come together like this, we want to compare our experiences, see what we need to do to uplift the lives of our people. And China, being a critical player, becomes a focal point with which we can work," said Wetang'ula.
He noted that China has achieved remarkable development over the past three decades and he expected the bonds with the country to continue helping enhance quality of living in Africa and boosting development across a wide range of areas.
"For the simple reason that China today is not China thirty years ago. It has made a major leap. So, we have lessons to pick and lessons to learn in social development, in economic improvement, in industrialization, in manufacturing, in engineering, [and in] our many facets of life. So, being here this time around is a statement that what was started as a friendship movement endures and must continue enduring to change lives and produce positive results and effects in our individual countries and individual economies," he said.
Wetang'ula said he had visited China multiple times over the past decades, witnessing the fast rise of south China's tech hub Shenzhen and the changes in capital Beijing.
He added he was impressed by the country's transformation and the precision with which it has planned and executed its development and expected China's experience to help African countries do the same if not better.
"When we landed in Shenzhen, I was shocked. From a sleepy rusty fishing village was a brand-new city with skyscrapers, with glittering, opulent-looking buildings, but Shenzhen is just one example. That is the kind of precision and transformation that your country has gone through, that many of our countries have lessons to learn. How have you done it and how can we do the same way, if not better," he said.
Kenyan official expects China's experience to help improve quality of living in Africa
