Kenya’s Ruto issues a rebuke other African leaders won’t dare

An African leader has finally spoken publicly against frequent summits between African leaders and influential nations seen as hardly yielding results, describing them as “unintelligent”.

Kenya’s President William Ruto said African leaders were sometimes “mistreated” at events where they have bloc representation and said they had agreed it would not be “business as usual”.

Global powers routinely set up summits with African leaders in their countries, as the west and east wrestle for dominance in the continent. The events usually feature group deals from the host on a range of subjects, such as energy, climate change, health care and economy.

The upcoming Russia-Africa Summit in July is the latest of such summits. It is Russia’s second with African countries, and organizers say it will focus on infrastructure, technology and energy.

It follows last year’s United States-Africa Leaders Summit, the European Union-African Union (AU) Summit, Tokyo International Conference on African Development, and the 2021 Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC). There was also Africa-France summit held in 2021.

Some of the deals reached at the meetings fail to materialise and the events have been seen as influence peddling. More than that, the idea of a single powerful leader calling up the leaders of 54 countries to a meeting has made some uncomfortable.

“Historically, summits have been viewed in a dim light – criticised for their lack of substance and for perpetuating imbalanced power dynamics,” said Ronak Gopaldas, Institute for Security Studies (ISS) Consultant, Director, Signal Risk and Faculty at the Gordon Institute of Business Science.

He however added that “lately there is a clear attempt to move beyond the cosmetic into something more tangible.”

– Not business as usual

Speaking on Saturday during the Mo Ibrahim Governance Weekend at the Kenya International Convention Centre, President Ruto said African heads of states have agreed to change their approach to negotiations.

“We have these meetings, Africa-US, Africa-Europe, Africa-Turkey, now we are waiting for Africa-Russia and Africa-Japan. We have made the decision that it is not intelligent for 54 of us to go and sit before one gentleman from another place,” he said.

His remarks drew prolonged applause from Sudanese billionaire host Mo Ibrahim and other attendees.

Apparently referring to an incident where African presidents were put in a bus to attend Queen Elizabeth’s funeral ceremony in the UK, he added, “And sometimes we are mistreated, we are loaded into busses like school children and it is not right.”

In September, Mr Ruto joined other African presidents in a bus as they headed to Buckingham Palace in the United Kingdom for the funeral service of the late Queen Elizabeth II.

Other presidents used their own private vehicles to the funeral.

– Select few

Mr Ruto said the African Union has taken a decision that going forward a select few will represent them at global talks.

“The decision that we have made as AU is that going forward if there is going to be a discussion between Africa and any other country we are going to be represented by the chair,” he said.

“A group of six or seven members should be able to represent Africa and that is the position I am taking as the President of Kenya, for any other meeting that we are going to have with all these requests,” he explained.

He said African states respect the sovereignty of other nations and theirs should also be respected.