A French shipping company has pledged €700 million to rebuild the docks of Mombasa. Eight hundred French soldiers arrived in Kenya about a month ago. On Monday, more than 30 African heads of state gathered at the University of Nairobi to hear what France wanted next.
President Emmanuel Macron and Kenyan President William Ruto opened the Africa Forward summit on May 11 with a significant announcement: €23 billion in investment commitments. According to reports, €14 billion came from French companies and €9 billion from African firms and investors. The projects focus on energy, agriculture, and artificial intelligence, and organisers say they could create 250,000 jobs.
However, the most striking detail was the location itself. This was the first Africa-France summit ever held in an English-speaking country, a deliberate signal about where France sees its future on the continent. For fifty years, these summits had rotated between Paris and Francophone capitals where France held influence.
France has been forced to change strategy. Following military coups in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, French troops were expelled from countries that once anchored Paris's security presence. Kenya, under President Ruto since 2022, has positioned itself as an alternative partner, attracting Western investment and promoting itself as a regional hub for green industry and artificial intelligence.
Both presidents used language distancing the summit from "Françafrique," the post-colonial network critics called neo-colonial. They framed the approach as a "partnership of equals." France also passed legislation enabling the return of looted colonial-era cultural artifacts to Africa.
"We should no longer think in terms of aid," Ruto said, "but rather in terms of investment and what Africa has to offer."