French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Nairobi ahead of the Africa Forward Summit, casting the gathering as a decisive break with decades of French dominance on the continent. Paris now insists it wants a relationship built on mutual respect rather than the paternalism long associated with its post‑colonial presence.

The summit, held for the first time in an Anglophone African country, is designed to showcase this reset. It comes on the heels of the withdrawal of French troops from several West African states, a retreat that underscored how sharply France’s influence has eroded amid rising popular anger and the advance of new partners such as Russia, China and Turkey.

For more than half a century, French policy in Africa was framed by the doctrine known as Françafrique, a dense web of military bases, political alliances and economic interests that critics say entrenched authoritarian elites and stifled local sovereignty. African leaders and opposition figures have repeatedly condemned what they saw as a demeaning, heavy‑handed approach dressed up as cooperation.

Macron is now trying to draw a line under that legacy. Standing alongside his host, Kenyan President William Ruto, he argued that France can clash with governments but “never disagrees with the people,” a nod to the youth‑driven protests that have pushed French troops out of countries such as Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger.

Ruto hailed the summit as a potential “turning point,” saying Nairobi wants to cultivate a broad range of partnerships and is “neither looking East nor West” but “looking forward.” The two‑day meeting is expected to bring together around 30 heads of state, with discussions centered on innovation, climate finance, security cooperation and job creation for Africa’s rapidly growing young population.

Yet the choice of Kenya as host has exposed sharp domestic tensions. Opposition leader Kalonzo Musyoka denounced the decision, arguing that Kenya itself is struggling with threats to democracy, pressure on the opposition and persistent human rights concerns as it heads toward the next general election. “There will be an air of pretense that we are a cohesive nation. We know that is far from the truth,” he said.

On the sidelines, Kenya and France signed 11 agreements spanning nuclear energy, modernized transport networks and sustainable agriculture. Macron framed the deals as investments in “human capital,” presenting them as proof that France’s future in Africa will be negotiated, not imposed, in a region increasingly determined to set its own terms.