Challenges of Capacity Building and Development from Chinas’ Aid Model; a Case Study of the East African Community Countries

There is an increase of Chinese partnership to African development through loans and grants which are directed to African infrastructural development for capacity development. This development has been implemented on the continent through numerous constructions of infrastructural projects in the form of roads, railways, dams, installation of fibre wires across the East Africa community. This approach to development through aid for infrastructural development is opposed to the former colonial masters’ approach that based on capacity building in their former colonies with a focus of their contribution to African transformation that was directed to the promotion of human rights, democracy and transfer of administrative skills to the African counterparts. This experience of the colonial masters and the new comers the Chinese, their interest as evident in Africa, the same is true for their existence in the East African community. This transformation of the aid model from former colonial masters to Chinese domination of the donor relations inspired the selection of this topic to explain in this paper the challenges the new aid model of Chinese to East African countries contribute to promoting capacity development as it down plays capacity building. A case presentation of the implemented projects in Uganda and Kenya are presented to illustrate the experienced challenges of this Aid model for Africa from the case of the Regional Economic Community of the East African Community