With Macron present in Nairobi, Kenya’s president lays out what he wants from France

The East African country of Kenya, which is hosting the president of France, Emmanuel Macron, alongside an estimated 30 African leaders at the 2026 Africa Forward Summit, detailed the kind of relationship it would like to cultivate with the Western European country.

• Kenya is hosting the 2026 Africa Forward Summit, attended by French President Macron, around 30 African leaders, and international stakeholders.
• The summit aims to deepen Africa-France economic ties and marks the first time it's been held in an English-speaking country, as France seeks to revitalize its influence outside the Sahel.
• Kenyan President Ruto is leveraging the summit to negotiate for fairer treatment of African nations in global finance, with France expressing support.
• France and Kenya signed over $1 billion in agreements covering transport, infrastructure, maritime affairs, and economic development.

The Africa Forward Summit 2026, which kicked off today, is a high-level Africa-France conference in Nairobi, Kenya, featuring African heads of state, corporate executives, investors, and policymakers.

The conference aims to deepen economic relations between Africa and France through new partnerships across critical industries.

This would mark the first time France is hosting the summit in an English-speaking country, as it struggles to reestablish its relations with countries in the Sahel.

While the primary motive of the summit is to diversify the partnerships of Paris across the continent and secure significant investment deals, the president of Kenya, William Ruto, intends to advance negotiations regarding the reform of the global financial architecture.

Via the summit, the Kenyan president seeks to ensure more equitable treatment for African nations burdened by significant debt, an objective that France has committed to endorsing, as seen on Reuters.

"We believe it's a good thing if critical outcomes of this meeting ... can also be mainstreamed as critical agenda items by the G7," Kenyan Foreign Minister Musalia Mudavadi told Reuters.

In April, it was reported that Emmanuel Macron invited his Kenyan counterpart, President William Ruto, to the Group of Seven summit he’s hosting in June.

This invite came on the heels of a military deal the East African country inked with France.

The deal, as seen on Bloomberg, is intended to “enhance Kenya’s defense capacity through access to French training, technology, and expertise” in strategic sectors such as maritime security, intelligence exchange, peacekeeping operations, and humanitarian disaster relief.

Some analysts characterize this development as a strategic response to France's diminished influence within the Sahel region of West Africa, a position it had consistently maintained until recent years.

For the last few years, West African countries, including Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger, all of which are now under a new regional umbrella, the Alliance of the Sahel States (AES), have launched an aggressive campaign to get rid of the French military within their borders.

During his visit to the Kenyan state house on Sunday, the French president understated the absence of some leaders at the summit.

He noted that Senegal’s president, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, and other West African heads of state will be present and that France was still looking to establish ties with those nations.

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"We can disagree with some of these governments, but we never disagree with people," Macron stated.

At the same time, he oversaw the signing of more than $1 billion worth of agreements with Kenya.

According to Kenya’s Prime Cabinet Secretary and Cabinet Secretary for Foreign and Diaspora Affairs Musalia Mudavadi, the two countries concluded 11 cooperation instruments covering transport, infrastructure, maritime affairs, and economic development.

“Tonight, the moment President Macron landed, we went straight to the State House and had bilateral engagements with France. We have signed 11 instruments, all critical, and in total, it comes to over 1 billion USD worth of programs and commitments,” Mudavadi said in remarks aired by Citizen TV Kenya.