Source: The Conversation – in French– By Frank Gerits, Research Fellow at the University of the Free State, South Africa and Assistant Professor in the History of International Relations, Utrecht University
The Africa-France Summit 2026organized in Nairobi on May 11 and 12 is the first to be held in an African country that is not a former French colony. It is also the first sincethe breakspectacular relations between France and several West African countries, notably Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger.
The 2026 summit can be considered the latest example of President Emmanuel Macron’s new African doctrine, which he haspresentedin Burkina Faso in 2017. The three key messages of this doctrine were:
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apologies for colonial wrongs
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a neoliberal approach focused on small businesses for aid programs
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the French will to develop new alliances outside of French Africa.
In accordance with this new doctrine, the French president in 2021, with some reluctance, offered apologies for certain aspects of French colonial policy in Algeria. In particular, he acknowledged the torture and the assassination of the Algerian nationalist hero.Ali Boumendjel.
But above all, Macron sought to strengthen Paris’s position as the old allianceswere weakening.
He deliberately invested time and energy beyond French West Africa. His official visit toGuinea-Bissau, a former Portuguese colony, is a good example of this.
Just after his election in 2017, theFrench Development Agency (AFD)and theTony Elumelu Foundationhave signed an agreement in Nigeria. It aims to empower a new generation of business leaders. The Tony Elumelu Foundation is a non-profit organization based in Lagos that promotes entrepreneurship among youth across Africa.
Macron then highlighted entrepreneurship during the new France-Africa summit in 2021. He wanted to inspire African youth toinnovateand to create businesses.
This year’s conference was held under thebanner: “Africa Forward: Partnerships between Africa and France for innovation and growth.” The focus onstart-upis not a coincidence.
Kenya has alsounderlinedthe innovative nature of this meeting, which highlights Africa as a major partner of Europe. Europe is seeking new allies amid the ongoing war in Ukraine. And the United States is not reliable, with Donald Trump imposing tariffs and questioning the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
As anhistorian of relations between the North and the South, I consider this meeting less as a historical break than as the continuation of arelationshipoldest and mutually beneficial between Kenya and France.
Kenya hopes that this closer relationship with France will strengthen its influence across Africa and enable it to compete with the diplomatic weight of South Africa, which hosted the G20 summit in November 2025.
By transcending the classic division between French Africa and British Africa, Nairobi can present itself as a continental leader and a diplomatic city.
History of relations between France and Kenya
Economic and diplomatic relations date back to1960s and 1970s. In September 1970, France had sent a little-known legal expert, Jacques Mollet, to advise the Kenyan Ministry of Industry and Commerce on the newly formed East African Community.
France has also sought to cooperate with institutions of the East African Community, such as the East African Development Bank. By becoming a close partner of a newly established regional economic bloc in Africa, in which Nairobi played a central role, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs sought to weaken British influence in Africa while strengthening its own position within the European Economic Community (EEC), now the EU.
Paris cynically justified its interference as a means of strengthening continental unity, arguing that a French sphere of influence and a British sphere of influence in Africa would lead to unnecessary internal competition between Commonwealth countries in Africa and French-speaking countries.
Kenya sought to strengthen its trade relations with France and the EEC in the 1960s. This was partly an attempt to break free from the Commonwealth. During negotiations with the EEC in 1963, a delegation from East Africa including the Kenyan Minister of Labour, Tom Mboya, emphasized that maintaining the East African Common Market was essential – and not that of the Commonwealth.
The shared vision of Ruto and Macron
The similarities between Kenyan President William Ruto and Macron further strengthen this historical link between Kenya and France. They share the same diplomatic objectives. Both focus on financing the fight against climate change and security, and both favor neoliberal privatization as a mode of governance at both the national and international levels.
Ruto’s 2022 election campaign highlighted the “nation of entrepreneurs,” emphasizing thesupport for small businesses. Macron behaved likea businessman-diplomatAbroad, presenting small businesses as a solution to underdevelopment.
It is therefore no coincidence that the 2026 summit hosted a business forum and that discussions focused on the potential benefits of artificial intelligence. AI, climate initiatives, and arms manufacturing, as well as the small businesses that have emerged thanks to these priorities, are areas of cooperation and investment between African countries and former colonial powers. Politicians like to boast about it.
This is partly explained by the fact that these are initiatives that have not yet proven themselves and that do not stem from a long history of unequal exchanges between the two countries. They constitute a natural common ground for two parties seeking to renew their relations, less burdened by the dark past of colonial oppression.
However, the agreement between France and Kenya on the need to address issues of security, climate change, and artificial intelligence obscures the fact that the two countries often find themselves in opposing camps on these subjects.
As the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 showed, African and European leaders do not necessarily share the same analysis of the global security situation.
European countries thought they would get the full support of African countries, but only28 of the 54 African countriesvoted in favor of a United Nations resolution condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Kenya abstained.
On issues such as climate change and artificial intelligence, France and Kenya again agree on the general principle that these issues require urgent action, but differ on the form that this action should take.
For example, climate change has severely affected Kenya. Prolonged droughts require genuine climate action. At the same time, France and the EU have discussed easing climate regulations to address the energy crisis caused by the United States’ war against Iran. This includes relaxing emission standards for cars.
The same problem arises concerning the AI economy, of which France wants to be the champion. It is the low-wage workers in Kenya who have done most of the groundwork to make AI applications function. Large language models and other applications must be trained and monitored by humans. These models are often trained in what is called in Kenya the“clandestine AI workshops”. Kenyans carry out a large part of the data labeling and content moderation workin the field of AI.
A long-term relationship?
Essentially, the summit illustrates how climate finance, security, and AI are used to strengthen commercial interests both in Africa and in France, and represent a strategic attempt to redefine a relationship long overshadowed by colonialism.
However, the future of this approach led by entrepreneurs remains uncertain. Its success will depend on the ability of France and Kenya to ensure that the wealth generated by these emerging sectors is widely distributed, or to prevent it from only enriching a small circle of technological elites.
Frank Gerits does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
–ref. Why the Africa-France summit in Nairobi bears the mark of Macron’s and Ruto’s priorities –https://theconversation.com/why-the-africa-france-summit-in-nairobi-bears-the-mark-of-macron-and-ruto-s-priorities-282763