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Report Debunking Kenya’s Mombasa Port Panic Leads to Debt Trap Reckoning from Press

by Cobus van Staden
File photo of the Port of Mombasa in Kenya. AFP.

African press outlets are reacting to a new report debunking the idea that China will seize Kenya’s Mombasa port in the event of a default on its Standard Gauge Railway loan. But the diversity of the reaction shows how snarled the issue of Chinese lending has become in global geopolitics.

The report follows panicked headlines that Kenya could lose the port. Through a highly technical unpacking of the terms of the loan agreement, it shows that these rumors were based on misunderstandings.

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