{"id":9250,"date":"2026-05-12T20:38:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T20:38:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kenyatopstories.co.ke\/?p=9250"},"modified":"2026-05-12T20:38:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T20:38:20","slug":"africa-forward-or-africa-excluded-civil-society-calls-out-corporate-capture-at-nairobi-summit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kenyatopstories.co.ke\/index.php\/2026\/05\/12\/africa-forward-or-africa-excluded-civil-society-calls-out-corporate-capture-at-nairobi-summit\/","title":{"rendered":"Africa Forward or Africa Excluded?\u201d Civil Society Calls Out Corporate Capture at Nairobi Summit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Africa Forward or Africa Excluded?\u201d Civil Society Calls Out Corporate Capture at Nairobi Summit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Nairobi, Kenya.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the Africa Forward Summit convenes this week in Nairobi, civil society leaders and climate advocates are raising urgent concerns that the high-profile gathering risks reinforcing extractive dynamics rather than delivering a just and equitable energy transition for Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


The two-day summit, hosted by the French government and bringing together representatives from around 30 African countries, aims to \u201creimagine partnerships for innovation and growth\u201d between Africa and France. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, campaigners warn that the event\u2019s business-heavy agenda and sponsorship by fossil fuel giant TotalEnergies undermines its credibility at a critical moment for climate action.
The summit follows closely on the heels of the Santa Marta conference in Colombia, where nearly 60 governments including several African nations engaged in unprecedented discussions on transitioning away from fossil fuels.
Despite positioning itself as a platform for Africa\u2019s future, the summit has granted access to nearly 2,000 corporate executives and government representatives,while excluding the vast majority of civil society organisations from the main proceedings.
Rukiya Khamis, East Africa Programme Manager at 350.org, said:
\u201cInviting civil society to a pre-event while locking them out of the main summit is not participation, it is tokenism. Communities on the frontlines of the climate crisis cannot be consulted as a formality and then excluded from decisions that shape their future. We will not accept a Nairobi Declaration authored without us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Campaigners point to the contradiction between the summit\u2019s stated ambition to reset clean energy partnerships and the involvement of companies driving fossil fuel expansion across the continent.
Savio Carvalho, Global Climate Campaign Lead at 350.org, said:
\u201cYou cannot talk about a clean energy future while handing the microphone to companies like TotalEnergies, whose projects , including pipelines like EACOP, are linked to environmental destruction and human rights abuses. This isn\u2019t partnership ,it\u2019s extractivism repackaged.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n


New analysis from 350.org highlights the real-world consequences of fossil fuel dependence. In just two months of the recent war in South West Asia, Kenyan households and businesses lost an estimated $143\u2013150 million due to oil price spikes.
Advocates say this underscores the urgent need for African governments to commit to clear timelines for a fossil fuel phase-out and accelerate investment in renewable energy.
Civil society leaders are urging France to move beyond rhetoric and take concrete action, including holding fossil fuel companies accountable and delivering meaningful financial support for a just transition.
Fanny Petitbon, France Country Manager at 350.org, said:
\u201cFrance cannot claim to reset its relationship with Africa while backing corporations that profit from crisis and pollution. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A genuine partnership means accountability, taxing excess fossil fuel profits, and delivering climate finance as grants \u2014 not loans that deepen debt.\u201d
Campaigners emphasise that Africa faces a defining choice: lead the global renewable energy transition or remain locked into unequal relationships shaped by extraction and dependency.
Rukiya Khamis added:
\u201cAfrica does not need charity. It needs reparative finance, political courage, and a seat at the table where decisions are made. Nothing for us should be decided without us.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Africa Forward or Africa Excluded?\u201d Civil Society Calls Out Corporate Capture at Nairobi Summit. Nairobi,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kenyatopstories.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kenyatopstories.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kenyatopstories.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kenyatopstories.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kenyatopstories.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9250"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kenyatopstories.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9252,"href":"https:\/\/kenyatopstories.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9250\/revisions\/9252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kenyatopstories.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kenyatopstories.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kenyatopstories.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}