Mwaivu Kaluka, National Chairperson of the communist Party Marxist Kenya.
( Welcoming address to the Pan-African summit in Nairobi, 11th May 2026)
Revolutionary greetings, comrades, On behalf of the Central Organizing committee of the Communist Party Marxist Kenya, I would like to welcome all Political parties, movements, trade Unions, mass organizations, our Party Cadres, international delegates and everyone who has graced this counter-summit. I would also like to thank the summit working committee for their work and putting everything together to make sure this summit is a success.
Our country is the land of the great Mau Mau fighters. We can only pay respect to all revolutionary martyrs, including the Gen-Z youth, whose blood continues to water the tree of our revolution by carrying forward our struggle. To them, we vow to always advance the struggle they began, to this behest, we shall implement with honour.
Comrades! Once again, our continent is facing an imminent threat from an aggressive beast. That beast is not new on our land; it has been injured in the scattered acacia shrubs of the Sahel region, where there was nowhere to hide, and now it's finding solace and habitat in the Rift Valleys and volcanic mountains of sub-Saharan Africa. With the dense rainforest, it finds shelter and food. Our large river basins quench their thirst while the Rwenzori and Kilimanjaro Mountains provide it with a strategic position to continue devouring the whole continent.
This untamed stray beast must be annihilated before it fully recovers. Comrades! This beast is French Imperialism, and it would require all our efforts to defeat it. This summit is the labyrinth where we must prepare the Bait and the bottomless pit to which the beast will be trapped and buried in the archives of antiquity. The Peasants and the working class of Africa will be the indomitable hunters, armed with the Spear of Pan-Africanism and the ever-illuminating torch of scientific socialism, we shall deal this beast its last straw. We hope that this summit will come up with actionable resolutions for our people to defeat French Imperialism and its prefect, US imperialism.
French colonial history in Africa is something we can never forget. The method of assimilation was one of the most brutal methods of colonialism that wanted to completely erase our African culture, customs, language and economic life. Even after Independence, De Guelle ensured that its former colonies remained under its control. They created a comprador class of African elites to manage the neocolonial state and its economic interests.
Apart from Sekou Toure of Guinea, most heads of state in Francophone countries chose to remain within the French community during the 1958 constitutional referendum. Most of these Heads of the newly independent states became the running dogs of French imperialism. French puppet Omar Bongo ruled Gabon until his death in 2009, and was succeeded by his son, Ali Bongo, before the coup led by Oligui Nguema. In the Republic of Congo, France has supported the Sassou Ngueso regime since 1979. In Cameron, the 93-year-old Paul Biya has ruled the country since 1982 and is now preparing his son for succession. In Chad, Idriss Deby has ruled since 1990, and the same neocolonial client states have been maintained in the Central African Republic, Benin (Patrice Talon), and Alassane Ouattara in the Ivory Coast, just to mention a few.
These neocolonial puppets have enjoyed red carpet overtures in Paris, and the crumbs they have collected from imperialism have been invested in apartments, villas, and mansions in French leafy suburbs. Their offshore accounts are deposited in French banks. Those leaders who have refused submission to France, like Thomas Sankara and Muammar Gaddafi, were toppled through Military interventions orchestrated by France, and they were replaced by docile puppets that would allow French Finance Capital to continue to dominate the people of Africa.
The France-African summit, which has been rebranded as “ Africa Forward summit”, is a classical case of the Carrot-and-stick method to lure the rest of the continent’s countries to become the host of the leeching French Imperialist parasite. After its defeat and devastating history in the Sahel, it is now repositioning itself to find new spheres of Influence. President Ruto is the chief broker. When Congo bled, his first phone call was to Macron. His dalliance with Macron and even the recent invitation to the 2026 G7 summit in France are not unconscious lovey-dovey; they are strategic manoeuvring and imperialist machinations by France to make us subservient.
Finance
Comrades! One of the discussions between Emmanuel Macron and William Ruto during Ruto's June 2023 visit to France focused on the financial architecture. Ruto called for a complete overhaul of the Global Financial architecture to a win-to-win approach that would help developing countries. What we must ask ourselves is, what has been the existing financial architecture that Ruto wants to be overhauled? We must also ask ourselves whether France's financial architecture in Africa is different from the existing dominant one.
At the end of World War II, the imperialist countries met in the famous Bretton Woods conference in 1944 to discuss the new post-War financial and economic architecture for the world. What came out of that conference was the ‘White Plan’, which was proposed by the US Secretary of the Treasury, Harry Dexter White. In this plan, a stabilisation fund would be created, which would require member states to deposit a ‘quota’ in the form of 75% of their national currency and 25% of gold. In return, this country would have purchasing rights called ‘Special drawing rights’ (SDRs) to settle trade imbalances.
The dollar was also pegged to other currencies at a fixed exchange rate. The Bretton Woods conference also set up the World Bank, which enabled direct foreign investment, while the IMF prescribed fiscal and monetary policies. Through facilities like the Stand-by arrangement, Extended Fund Facility/ Extended Credit Facility, the IMF was able to extend credit in tranches while making sure that these debtor countries were implementing the structural adjustment programmes.
On the other hand, French Financial architecture in Africa has not been different? We are all aware that France has had the worst and most oppressive financial and monetary architecture in its relations with African countries. The CFA franc, which was established in 1945, at the same time as the Bretton Woods conference, has continued to serve as a neocolonial tool for controlling both our fiscal and monetary policies. Most of the West and Central African countries remained in the CFA franc regime post-independence.
The establishment of West African Economic and Monetory Union ( WAEMU) with eight member state, that is, Burkina Faso, Cote d ivory,Mali, Benin, Senegal, Niger, Togo and Guinea-Bissau and the other entity of Central African Economic and Monetory community(CAEMC) with Gabon, equitorial Guinea, Republic of Congo, Chad, Cameron and Central Republic of Africa meant that France had full control of the financial architecture of these African countries.
To achieve full control and to undermine African sovereignty, France made sure that there was centralisation of the foreign exchange reserve. The Bank of Central African States ( BEAC) and the Central Bank of West African States( BCEAO) were initially headquartered in France, and even after their relocation to Africa, the countries under the CFA franc regime are still required to deposit 50% of their foreign exchange reserve in a special French treasury.
As if this is not enough, France has put a fixed rate of exchange that is pegged to the Euro, similar to the dollar on the Bretton Woods arrangement. France also allowed unlimited convertibility of CFA franc into Euros, but they required foreign exchange reserves to exceed money in circulation by 20%, this is not sovereignty comrades, this is outright neo-colonial control of our monetary policies.
France also ensured that it had experts on the boards of directors of BCEAO and BEAC, while African Heads of State were reduced to advisory roles. This is the kind of financial architecture that would be dished out to African heads of state during the so-called "Africa Foward Summit".
Trade and Industrial Investment
Comrades! French multinational corporations also continued to exercise monopolistic control of Francophone countries through Foreign direct investment, imports and exports. Countries of the West and Central Africa have vast rich minerals and precious metals like Gold, oil, manganese,iron ore deposits, uranium, coal and agricultural products like Cocoa, cotton, rubber, timber, rice, Maize and other goods have continued to be controlled by French multinational Corporations(MNCs) from Orange, Total energies, Orano, CMA CGM just to mention a few have controlled both Industry and commerce.
The expulsion of these MNCs in the Sahel means that France is looking for other outposts in the rest of the African continent to continue exploiting African resources, labour and the Market. ECOWAS has continued to be controlled by France. France is still the biggest importer of raw materials from these francophone countries and the biggest exporter of finished goods, mostly light industry goods. The continued use of the CFA Franc in Bilateral exchange means that France continues to dominate trade between these member states.
Millitary
Comrades! The recent defence cooperation between the Kenya Defence Forces and France, which was signed in October 2025 and recently approved by Parliament, is something that must worry us. Foreign millitary bases are always placed strategically as watchdogs for the economic interests of foreign Finance Capital. This defense Pact, followed by the arrival of more than 800 French Marines at the port of Mombasa, is a smokescreen for permanent military bases and launchpads in our country.
Under the pretext of military training, intelligence sharing and maritime security, this is just the same script, but with different stages. It is not all lost in us, the brutal intervention against Muamar Gaddafi in Libya. After the 2011 operation Unified Protector in Libya, the region experienced increased terrorist groups, piracy and smuggling of natural/mineral resources. In 2014, France established the G-5 Sahel, a military arrangement that included Chad, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso and Mauritania, where they established military bases in D'Jamena, Chad; Niamey, Niger; Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. It is also important to note that France has military bases in more than 10 countries, which are strategically placed where they have strategic economic interests.
These military bases have nothing to do with security or fighting terrorism, they are in fact, the ones banrolling and supplying terrorist groups with arms to destabilise the region. We must prick our memories on the failures of the Operation Serval launched in 2013 in Mali and Operation Barkhane in 2014. These operations only exposed France's continued training, arming and sharing of intelligence with these terrorist groups in the Sahel region.
Climate
Comrades! Another theme that will dominate the discussions will be climate change. France will be propagating the neoliberal framework for mitigating the climate crisis. The global North, which has been the biggest carbon emitter, doesn't want to be accountable. The climate crisis has chiefly been caused by capitalist primitive accumulation and its ambition to superprofit without paying attention to environmental degradation. Instead of resolving the crisis from its root cause, capitalism seeks to commodify the crisis. The resolutions during the Rio summit in 1992 and the adoption of the Kyoto protocols in 1997 have continued to offer this neo-liberal market-based framework for mitigating the climate crisis. International Finance Capital is papering over the cracks; it wants to put a Band-Aid instead of preventing a wound.
The 'Cap and Trade' and Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) introduced mostly to countries of the Global North will not resolve the crisis. It will only allow the industrialised countries and the big transnational corporations to buy carbon credits from countries of the Global South. This will allow the transnational corporations from the Global North to continue with carbon emissions and offset them by buying certified emission reduction(CER) credits.
The CDM and the Voluntary offset markets(VOM) have both contributed to the climate crisis, and they cannot be a solution. These clean development projects have also led to the push out of production of most of our peasant population. Their land has been taken away to allow for conservancy and carbon sinks. Our people must continue to oppose these carbon market mechanisms. The industrialised countries must take steps to reduce carbon emissions. The lie that Ruto has been spreading about climate financing only exacerbates the crisis and does not lead to any actual development for our People.
Alliance of Sahelian States
Comrades! We have ‘Just coups’ and ‘unjust coups’. Coups that enjoy popular support of the people and which advance the progress of the people are just coups, while coups that seek to maintain or even reverse the progress of the people are unjust coups. The coups that happened in Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali are just coups. These revolutions have been able to detach from the imperialist chain, and they are now proceeding with the project of national development.
They have been able to remove foreign transnational corporations, especially French corporations that were exploiting their resources. They have also removed US and French military bases from their territories. They are now on the path of developing their national industry and mechanising their agriculture. The formation of the Confederal Bank for Investment and Development(BCID-AES) is a step forward in detaching from the oppressive Bretton Woods institutions and the French CFA regime. This will enable these countries of the Alliance of Sahelian states to avoid integration into the global financial architecture. This also means the sovereignty of their fiscal and monetary policies, and it will also help them with their balance of payments, as opposed to the oppressive World Trade Organisation frameworks.
Their seclusion by ECOWAS and the African Union only confirms how these multilateral institutions have deviated from their original objectives and have now become subservient to Imperialism. The formation of the alliance of Sahelian states is the correct path as envisaged in the Pan-African objectives of building a united Africa. We must offer support to these revolutions and defend them at all times.
National Democratic Revolution.
Comrades! This epoch of imperialism and struggle for a proletarian revolution offers us the opportunity of defeating imperialism on all fronts. The era of bourgeois-democratic revolutions is over; we are in the era of National Democratic revolutions, especially for countries where imperialism and semi-feudal relations still persist. The struggle for self-determination to resolve the national question has now become part of the world proletarian revolution. We have the task to carry out the national democratic revolution to prepare the base for socialist construction.
This requires us to consolidate the basic alliance of the working class and the peasants who form the majority in Africa. We must also win over the other nationally oppressed classes into the national united front to raise the banner of national democratic revolution. The countries of the Sahelian states are showing us the way. When the rock drill workers of Marikana rise, and the Cocoa peasant farmers of Ghana join them, there is no imperialist Fortress we cannot conquer.
Long live the National Democratic Revolution !!!
Long live the Socialist Revolution !!!
Forward with International Solidarity !!!
Down with French Imperialism !!!
Down with US imperialism !!!.