{"id":13473,"date":"2026-05-11T08:53:43","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T08:53:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/13473\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T08:53:43","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T08:53:43","slug":"frances-macron-is-in-kenya-for-an-africa-summit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/13473\/","title":{"rendered":"France’s Macron is in Kenya for an Africa summit"},"content":{"rendered":"

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) \u2014 French President Emmanuel Macron<\/a> kicked off a visit to Kenya on Sunday ahead of the Africa Forward Summit, a gathering meant to showcase France\u2019s new policy for the continent<\/a> \u2014 a shift from a former colonial power seen as dominating to what Paris describes as a partnership of equals. <\/p>\n

Held for the first time in an Anglophone country, the summit is expected to draw reactions to the withdrawal of French troops from West Africa that was completed last year amid France\u2019s waning regional influence<\/a> in recent years. <\/p>\n

Since the independence of France\u2019s former African colonies, France had maintained a policy of economic, political and military sway dubbed Fran\u00e7afrique<\/a>, which included keeping thousands of troops in the region. But leaders in those countries<\/a> \u2014 and opposition figures \u2014 have often criticized France over what they described as a demeaning and heavy-handed approach to the continent.<\/p>\n

Macron\u2019s host, Kenyan President William Ruto, said both leaders expect the summit to be a \u201cturning point\u201d toward a better partnership. <\/p>\n

Macron commented on the changing geopolitical landscape, saying France can \u201cdisagree\u201d with West African governments but \u201cnever disagrees with the people.\u201d <\/p>\n

The two-day summit, which starts on Monday, is expected to welcome 30 heads of state. Ten have arrived so far.<\/p>\n

Kenya\u2019s opposition leader Kalonzo Musyoka slammed the choice of Kenya as a venue, describing it as country where democracy remains under threat, the opposition is under attack and human rights are being violated even as it prepares for the 2027 general election.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere will be an air of pretense that we are a cohesive nation,\u201d Musyoka said. \u201cWe know that is far from the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ruto on Sunday said Nairobi seeks to nurture a wide array of relationships and was \u201cneither looking East nor West\u201d but \u201clooking forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also Sunday, Kenya and France signed 11 agreements involving investments in various sectors, including an ambitious nuclear energy plant, modernized transport, and sustainable agriculture.<\/p>\n

Macron said the investments were aimed at strengthening \u201chuman capital,\u201d in line with the summit\u2019s focus on innovation and Africa\u2019s growing young population.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) \u2014 French President Emmanuel Macron kicked off a visit to Kenya on Sunday ahead of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13474,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[493,36,1602,5,349,83,9981,559,10056,344,346,8747,90],"class_list":{"0":"post-13473","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-africa","9":"tag-emmanuel-macron","10":"tag-energy-industry","11":"tag-france","12":"tag-france-government","13":"tag-general-news","14":"tag-kalonzo-musyoka","15":"tag-kenya","16":"tag-kenya-government","17":"tag-military-and-defense","18":"tag-politics","19":"tag-william-ruto","20":"tag-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}