Chinese in Kenya Face Stigmatization and Discrimination Due to COVID-19

Chinese workers stand at the construction site of Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) during the Presidential Inspection of the SGR Nairobi-Naivasha Phase 2A project in Nairobi, Kenya, on June 23, 2018. Yasuyoshi CHIBA / AFP

Chinese expatriates in Kenya and other African countries are becoming increasingly stigmatized by local populations fearful of contracting COVID-19. In major cities, ethnic Chinese people of all nationalities say they’re confining themselves to their homes to avoid increasingly common confrontations.

So far, there’ve been no reports of violence towards Chinese as most of the discrimination takes the form of whispers and people actively avoiding physical proximity to someone who is ethnically Chinese.

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by Eric Olander

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