The US and Kenya have announced their intentions to work towards a free-trade agreement between their two nations.This would be the first bilateral trade agreement in US-sub-Saharan trade relations.However, the situation is riddled with complications and potential controversy.While trade between the two countries is only $1 billion annually, the US recognizes Kenya's role as the economic center of East Africa. Kenya has already attracted billions of dollars of Chinese investment in a wide range of industries. China has been Africa’s biggest trading partner for over a decade and Chinese investment in Africa between 2014 and 2018 was $72.2 billion, double American investment during that period, according to Ernst & Young.A US-Kenya free-trade deal would essentially replace the current AGOA (African Growth and Opportunity Act), which gives many African nations duty-free or tariff-free access to the US, but which expires in 2025.Beyond the enthusiasm for this new trade deal, Kenya remains cautious.What About the Rest of Us?At the Atlantic Council in Washington, the day before meeting with President Trump, Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta warned against the US using Kenya for a proxy war against China.The Washington Post reported Mr. Kenyatta as stating that Kenya did not want to be "forced to choose" between the US and China.The proposed deal has also caught the attention of the African Union (AU). Albert Muchanga, the AU’s commissioner for trade and industry pointed out the pan-continental organisation “has provisions in the [AU] agreement that require a country to notify us when it intends to enter into a bilateral free-trade agreement.”The AfCFTA states that any preferences given to a third party must also be given to other parties of the African Continental Free Trade Area. “We are hopeful that the government of Kenya is going to brief us on the initiative that it is taking with the United States,” Mr. Muchanga told US media.At the same, African nations met in Ethiopia earlier this month to work on finalising their own continent-wide trade agreement.