Nairobi (23 Sept.2026) – As the world gathers for the annual UN General Assembly in New York, the geopolitical competition between the major global powers is expected to rise to the ceilings.
African countries, which managed to secure a seat for the African Union Commission on the Group of 20 (G20) following intense lobbying of Washington and obtaining Beijing’s no-objection, is yet again on another path to secure seats on the UN Security Council.
The search for more seats and a deeper global voice for Africa has long been driven by the Kenyan government under the designation of the AUC. The Committee of 10 Heads of State and was mostly chaired by Kenya.
This year, the AU directed all African leaders to direct their speeches to the lobbying for five seats and veto power.
Amid the campaign, Kenya has been seen as the centrepiece of Beijing’s push for its global agenda, aiming to expand the protection of Chinese assets through military training and policy cooperation with other countries.
While the question remains as to whether China’s rising global status would continue to unchallenged from an economic powerhouse to a military powerhouse, India and Kenya’s closer ties with the West appears to be Beijing’s greatest impediments.
China and India’s rivalry over maritime resources is a well-known issue but the expansion of this rivalry beyond Asia to Africa is something new.
Recently, the Kenyan government signalled its intention to terminate a natural resource extraction agreement with an Indian-owned firm, in a way, sending the alarm bells ringing in New Delhi.
Traditionally, India’s foreign direct investment in Kenya far surpasses the Chinese investment due to the early arrival of the Indian investor in Kenya.
Both countries share similar traits, that both were determined by the building of the Mombasa-Nairobi Railway, with the Indian workers providing labour to the Lunatic Express, or the rail to nowhere, as the project was mocked by British politicians.
Since the unveiling of the Chinese Global Governance Initiative (GGI), a foreign policy initiative by Beijing in September 2025, seeking to reform international institutions such as the UN, Kenya has appeared to champion the same agenda regionally.
Kenya has long held the ambition of becoming the African-veto wielding power in Africa while continuing to campaign for the reform of the UN and the global financial architecture.
India, another regional power, is fiercely opposed to the series of the Chinese foreign policy initiatives especially the elements seeking to raise the global security and international governance.
China is aggressively pushing its strategic foreign policy initiatives through the GGI, which it is using to swiftly move its foreign policy agenda to focus more on military cooperation.
Under this initiative, China’s strategic push, has focuses more on campaigning for what it calls the “sovereign equality” where it is urging countries to respect state sovereignty, uphold the international rule of law, uphold the UN Charter and multilateralism.
These are kind words but a tacit response to the US-led aggression against Iran, which has continued to attract more criticism from the West.
While China is striving to keep the global debate firmly on the long-held international relations traditions emphasising the sovereignty of the state, the Western critics insist Beijing’s ideas about the state supremacy, is nothing more than state rhetoric to expand global authoritarianism.
Since Beijing embarked upon this push, China’s share of arms sales to Africa has surpassed Russia.
The Chinese-owned arms dealership, the North Industries Group Corporation Limited, (NORINCO) opened offices in Senegal and has been notable for its more public advertisement of arms, artillery and aerial vehicles used for surveillance across West Africa, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
The reliance on Chinese-made arms is increasing rapidly, with Tanzania, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Mozambique nearly dependent on China for majority of their arms imports.
China lack regulatory controls on who is able to access its arms while figures show that 40% of African countries have received Chinese arms between 202019-2023.
In a region such as the Sahel where armed groups are increasingly stamping their authority, the growth in Chinese armed footprint is being frowned upon by its rivals as a source of concern for peace and stability.
India is opposed to the Chinese effort to paint New Delhi as a regional power in Asia and has begun implementing foreign policy initiatives to re-balance.
India supports some of Beijing’s initiatives including the UN reform, the reform of the global financial architecture but is opposed to the treatment of New Delhi as a secondary power in Asia.
India also opposes the Chinese Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative and the Global Civilisation Initiative which aim to address security, international governance and justice.
Through its security initiatives, China continues to invest heavily in providing armed protection to its Belt, Roads and Bridges Initiatives. This is the Chinese effort to connect Beijing to its regional and international trading partners through bridges and roads.
Primary beneficiaries of the BRI such as Kenya are likely to witness more focused attempts by China to expand its military footprint after it completes implementing development phase.
Kenya embraced China in the wake of drying foreign financial support, which saw Nairobi resorting to expensive loans from commercial lenders.
China came in to the rescue through commercial loans which saw Nairobi building the Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway (SGR).
While China continues to rely on its mega-development projects through the BRI initiative which is mostly supported by China’s increasing financial architecture notably the China Export and Import Bank, China Exim Bank, India sees Beijing as using global transport connectivity as a “theatre of present-day geopolitical competition.”
India is in turn being urged to utilise its growing footprint in the Asian Infrastructure Bank to neutralise China by providing infrastructure support to neighbours like Sri Lanka.
Ends AO 22Sept.2026