When I first embarked on the project to write about the encounters between Chinese digital capital and Nairobi’s booming innovation scene, I imagined myself rubbing shoulders with software developers, venture capitalists, coworking hosts, and business analysts. That happened, eventually. But my first encounter with digital Global China in Kenya was of a completely different kind. I had just landed in Nairobi, in fall 2021, when I realized that I needed a burner phone to use mobile money. I…

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