Kagame Urges African Self-Reliance At Global Policy Forum In France
img_tag = ("Kagame's African Self-Reliance Call: What Kenya Needs to Hear Right Now
Akina watu wanasema Afrika hawezi—lakini Kagame anaongea tofauti.** At the World Policy Conference in France this past Friday, Rwanda's President Paul Kagame stood among global powerhouses and delivered a message that should resonate in boardrooms across Nairobi, Mombasa, and every corner of Kenya: Africa doesn't need to wait for the world to believe in it. It needs to believe in itself first. While many African leaders travel to international forums armed with shopping lists of aid requests, Kagame arrived with something rarer—a vision of continental self-sufficiency that challenges the dependency mentality that has held Africa back for decades.
The 18th World Policy Conference isn't your typical gathering of diplomats exchanging pleasantries over fancy wine. It's where real ideological battles play out, where powerful nations stake their claims to influence over the Global South, and where the conversation about Africa's future gets shaped—sometimes without Africans being the ones steering it. Kagame's intervention was strategic: he pushed back against the narrative that suggests Africa must choose between Western cooperation and Eastern partnership, instead arguing that the continent must first get its own house in order. For Kenyans watching from the sidelines, this is the kind of straight talk that our own leaders sometimes shy away from in similar international settings.
What makes Kagame's message particularly sharp is the timing and context. As geopolitical tensions between superpowers intensify, and as nations compete fiercely for influence and resources across Africa, Kagame is essentially saying: stop looking outward for solutions to problems you can solve internally. Kenya understands this tension intimately. We're a nation with immense entrepreneurial energy, remarkable innovation in fintech and digital spaces, and a young population bursting with potential—yet we remain heavily dependent on external financing, foreign expertise, and foreign validation. How many Kenyan startups wait for Silicon Valley approval before believing their ideas are viable? How many of our brightest minds assume they must leave Kenya to succeed?
Kagame's call for stronger global cooperation doesn't contradict his push for African self-reliance—it complements it. He's not suggesting Africa isolate itself or reject partnerships. Rather, he's arguing that meaningful cooperation happens between equals, not between a continent in need and powerful nations offering charity with strings attached. Rwanda itself has become a case study in this approach: partnering strategically with global powers while investing heavily in domestic capacity-building, from technology hubs to agricultural innovation to governance reforms. Kenya has the ingredients to follow a similar path—our private sector is competitive, our talent pool is exceptional, and our position as a regional hub gives us natural advantages.
The self-reliance message hits especially hard when you consider Kenya's current economic moment. We're navigating rising debt, volatile currency exchanges, and pressure from international financial institutions that often come with conditions attached. When Kagame speaks about Africa's agency and determination, he's offering a blueprint that prioritizes building domestic revenue streams, investing in local talent, and creating regional value chains that keep wealth circulating within our economies rather than flowing outward. It's the difference between being a consumer of global solutions and being a creator of them.
For ordinary Kenyans—the trader in Nairobi's Central Business District, the farmer in Kisii, the tech worker in Westlands—Kagame's message translates into something concrete: your government's role should be to create conditions for *you* to solve problems, not to wait for external salvation. It means supporting local industries over imported alternatives where quality permits. It means demanding that our leaders invest tax revenues in education, infrastructure, and innovation rather than endlessly seeking donor support. It means recognizing that the wealth and solutions Africa needs already exist within Africa—they just need to be unlocked, organized, and deployed strategically.
What Kagame's intervention at the World Policy Conference ultimately means for Kenyans is a simple but revolutionary idea: we don't have to choose between engaging the world and believing in ourselves. But we do have to choose between waiting for permission and creating our own future. The global cooperation will come—powerful nations will always want to partner with a prosperous, stable Africa. But first, Africa must demonstrate that it's serious about solving its own problems, creating its own wealth, and writing its own story. For Kenya, that choice isn't distant or abstract. It's the choice we make every single day, in how we invest, what we build, and who we trust to lead.