Delusion: When guests mistake African hospitality for hegemony

From Right-President William Ruto and French President Emmanuel Macron during the closing of Africa Forward Summit on May 12, 2026.[Jonah Onyango, Standard]

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 flop that exposed the deep-seated tensions 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 may call it leadership. It looked more like the conduct of a man who still 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 engaging 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 Francafrique 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 harbor for a leader whose policies are 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, President Ruto risks positioning Kenya as a broker for the very interests Pan-Africanists like Julius Malema have warned against.

A true Pan-African policy would demand compensation for colonial atrocities and the return of stolen artifacts 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 Kenyans that Kenya is now manufacturing phones and computers in significant capacity is a bold departure from the truth.

Kenyans are right to ask where these factories are. Are they in the Industrial Area, or hidden in villages of Murang’a or Bungoma? The government may have made strides in digital infrastructure and fiber 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 a fabrication. Comparing Kenyan tea to French wine may 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 such performances without demanding historical accountability, it risks lending African legitimacy to a project many Africans have already 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 like 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.

The summit was meant to showcase a future-makers partnership. 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 this cycle, Kenya must demand a foreign policy that places African solidarity above Western validation.