China Square reopens amid backlash from CS Kuria, local traders

Mr Lei Cheng alias Charlie, the Chinese businessman and director of China Square, has reopened his shop nearly two weeks after he suspended its operations after backlash from the government and local traders who accused him of undercutting them in pricing.

Speaking to Nation.Africa on Monday, he said he is optimistic that the business will regain its footing and serve customers despite the controversy his store has caused.

"Yes we are open. We reopened today but turnout is not that big because we had not publicised it," he said. 

"But we are optimistic that we will have resumed to normalcy in the next few days," he added.

Mr Cheng had earlier announced that he will close the store to reevaluate its strategy following claims it had driven Kenyan traders out of business with lowly priced goods.

Set up in January, China Square became a hit with Nairobians for its low-priced items. However, this did not go down well with the Nyamakima traders who have since staged protests against foreign traders. 

The traders met with Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua who promised them that President William Ruto's government is willing to get rid of unfair policies that have threatened their businesses.

Initially, Trade Cabinet Secretary Moses Kuria had instructed China Square, a mall located along Thika Road, to give out their lease to Nyamakima traders instead. 

"I have today given an offer to Prof Paul Wainaina who is the Kenyatta University Vice Chancellor, to buy out the lease for China Square, Unicity Mall and hand it over to the Gikomba, Nyamakima, Muthurwa and Eastleigh Traders Association. We welcome Chinese investors to Kenya as manufacturers, not traders," Mr Kuria said on his social media handle. He has since deleted the tweet. 

But according to Mr Lei Cheng who owns China Square, the move by the CS are discriminatory.

 “We have cooperated with all government directives for opening a business in Kenya and we are here to break the monopoly. The people who are fighting us feel threatened because Kenyans now know we exist and we are not exploiting them in pricing,” Mr Cheng said in a previous interview with Nation.Africa.

Overpriced items

Mr Lei said he got the idea to open a store in Kenya after a routine visit to a supermarket where he found out that most cheap items imported from his home country –China—had been priced as premium. 

He said he made Sh20 million in the first two weeks of opening his business. 

“We opened this store on January 29 this year. We are barely a month old. In the first two weeks in business, our sales turnover was Sh20 million. Nowadays, on a bad day we sell goods worth Sh10 million,” Mr Cheng said in an earlier interview.