Ruto heads to France as Kenya pushes Africa's agenda at G7

President William Ruto. [File,Standard]

President William Ruto has departed for Évian, France, to attend the Group of Seven (G7) Leaders' Summit, where Kenya will join a small group of invited non-member nations in pressing for reform of the global financial system.

Kenya is among the invited countries, including Brazil, India and South Korea, attending the three-day summit, which runs from Monday to Wednesday under France's G7 presidency.

Ruto is expected to advocate for lower borrowing costs for African economies, expanded trade and investment access, and a continental position on artificial intelligence (AI) governance, drawing on agreements reached at the Africa Forward Summit held in Nairobi last month.

On the summit's sidelines, he is scheduled to hold bilateral meetings with heads of state and to engage technology company executives from firms including OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, Meta and Anthropic, seeking partnerships aimed at job creation and digital infrastructure investment in Kenya.

State House spokesperson Hussein Mohamed in a statement on Monday, June 15, said the president would also push for financing opportunities for Kenyan businesses under the National Infrastructure Fund.

The G7 groups Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States, alongside the European Union.

France holds the rotating presidency this year.