The recent Africa Forward Summit in Nairobi was marketed as the dawn of a “new model of partnership” between France and Africa. But for those watching closely, the summit was less about a leap forward and more about a stumbling backward into the paternalistic patterns of the past.
The visit by French President Emmanuel Macron and the hosting by President William Ruto didn’t just fail to live up to the hype, it was a spectacular flop that exposed the deep-seated tension between African agency and Western entitlement.
The failure began with a misunderstanding of modern Africa.
Macron arrived in Nairobi not as a partner seeking equal footing but as a headmaster looking for a captive audience. His outburst at the University of Nairobi, where he halted a youth session to lecture the crowd on respect and demand silence, was a mask-off moment.
His supporters might call it leadership. It looked more like the conduct of a man who sees the continent through a colonial lens. A guest does not shout at his hosts. A leader of a country that colonised 20 West African states lacks the moral authority to lecture Kenyans on etiquette when they are participating in the rowdy, vibrant discourse that defines their democracy.
There is a reason Macron found himself in East Africa rather than West Africa.
In the Sahel, nations such as Burkina Faso, Mali and Guinea have begun asserting sovereignty by rejecting the Françafrique model that allowed France to maintain economic and political control for decades.
His decision to use a Kenyan podium to call out these absent nations was cynical. It turned Nairobi into a venue for colonial brokering rather than Pan-African solidarity.
Why must Kenya become the safe harbour for a leader whose policies are being rejected by our brothers and sisters in the West?
By hosting Macron as he disparages Sahel leaders working to secure their own resources from French extraction, Ruto risks positioning Kenya as a broker for the very interests pan-Africanists such as Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema have warned against.
A true pan-African policy would demand compensation for colonial atrocities and the return of stolen artefacts before rolling out the red carpet for a lecture on innovation.
If Macron’s failure was one of character, Ruto’s was one of credibility. During the summit, the Kenyan presidency took theatre to a new level, weaving a narrative of progress disconnected from reality.
To tell a visiting head of state and the Kenyan public that Kenya is manufacturing phones and computers in significant capacity is a bold departure from the truth.
Kenyans are right to ask where the factories are.
Are they in the Industrial Area, in the villages of Murang’a or in Bungoma?
The government might have made strides in digital infrastructure and fibre optics. But claiming the mantle of a global manufacturer of digital assets while citizens struggle with the cost of living is not visionary. It is fabrication. Comparing Kenyan tea to French wine might work as a dinner anecdote. Claiming a manufacturing boom that has not materialised insults the intelligence of Kenyan youth.
This is the diplomatic danger.
When Kenya hosts performances such as this one, without demanding historical accountability, it risks lending African legitimacy to a project many Africans have rejected. Hospitality then becomes confused with submission. Partnership becomes a photo opportunity for old hierarchies. Nairobi should not be used to soften France’s damaged image in West Africa while the grievances of the Sahel are treated as an inconvenience.
That is not diplomacy. It is strategic laundering.
The online reaction to the visit — the memes and biting critiques from voices such as Victor M and Viking Blue — shows that the strategic management of power described by Willy Mutunga is no longer working as intended. Kenyans are not distracted by spectacle. They see through bilateral agreements that often operate as cover for extraction. They recognise when a guest has overstayed his welcome.
The summit was meant to showcase a future-makers partnership. Instead, it exposed a future-fakers reality. Kenya does not need a president who offers the country as a stage for neo-colonial tantrums.
It does not need one who manufactures economic miracles through rhetoric alone.
To break the cycle, Kenya must demand a foreign policy that places African solidarity above Western validation. It must demand an internal policy built on verifiable progress rather than red-wine analogies.
Most importantly, Kenyans must refuse to be the subjects Macron seems to imagine. Respect is earned through mutual dignity and truth, not through trade deals signed under the shadow of a finger-wagging headmaster.
The Africa Forward we need is one where Africa moves on its own terms, towards a future manufactured in reality, not speeches.
Gitobu Imanyara is a former member of the Kenyan and Pan-African parliaments, a human rights and pro-democracy lawyer and publisher. Follow him on X @GitobuImanyara
The French president’s visit to Nairobi was a spectacular flop that exposed the tension between African agency and Western entitlement
