17 Okech, Awino Leadership and Developing Societies 2021 6 1 10.47697/lds.35350022 This article examines how Kenyan civil society uses open governance to call for government accountability around debt acquisition from China. Through two case studies, I illustrate how strategic litigation has become a framework through which civil society exercises leadership from below in the face of constrained parliamentary scrutiny. Rather than a one-sided conversation about “China in Africa”, these case studies show that open governance serves a dual role of holding the Kenyan government accountable to its citizens, whilst critiquing the debt acquisition infrastructure of the Chinese government.