Kenyan president's visit to boost trade, ties
(AFP)
Updated: 2005-08-14 08:52

Since then, Kenyan tourism officials have reported a 40-percent surge in the number of Chinese tourists visiting the east African nation.

Kibaki will launch a "Magical Kenya" website in Chinese, which is expected to market Kenya in China, a nation of about 1.3 billion people.

Accompanying Kibaki to China will be a business delegation that will explore the country's market in a bid to balance trade relations that currently favour the Asian giant.

The Sino-Kenyan ties have improved over the years as the country's mission in Kenya is organising events to promote Chinese culture in the east African nation.

Between August 8 and 14, the country's mission in Nairobi and the Kenyan culture ministry organized a festival to mark the 600th anniversary of the arrival of legendary Chinese navigator and explorer Zheng He.

Historical evidence shows that Zheng led a fleet from China to the east coast of Africa, marking a landmark feat in the Chinese exploration history.

And in recent months, a Kenyan woman Mwamaka Sharif who claimed to be a descendant of one of the seamen in Zheng's fleet, has won a scholarship to study in China. Her claim grabbed headlines in the Asian nation.

In a bid to boost cultural ties, Kenya early this year approved a proposal to set up a Chinese radio station in Kenya, which if operational, would be the first Chinese broadcasting station outside its borders, AFP reported.

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