The Kenya Red Alliance (KEREAL) strongly condemns the arrests carried out against anti-imperialist organisers, students, workers, intellectuals, and international delegates in Nairobi during demonstrations opposing the Africa-France Summit. These arrests constitute a direct attack on democratic rights, political dissent, and the principle of African self-determination. They reveal the extent to which the Kenyan state has positioned itself in defence of foreign geopolitical and economic interests against the legitimate aspirations of the people.
Those arrested include Waringa Wahome, Dimitiros Patelis, Lee, Danbi, Joti Brar, Gacheke Gachihi, Guy Bremond, Sayialel Mankuyio, Julius Kamau, John Kamau, Brian Mwanzi, Derick Opiyo, Fredrik Yara, Colins Otieno, Beres Omondi, Tracy Auma, Patience Nyambura, Jobunga Samuel, and Kenneth Obiero. Among them are communist organisers, Pan-Africanists, student activists, and international anti-imperialist delegates whose only offence was opposing foreign domination and standing in solidarity with the oppressed masses of Africa.
The Africa-France Summit Is an Instrument for Reasserting French Imperial Influence in Africa
The Africa-France Summit cannot be interpreted as a neutral diplomatic initiative concerned with mutual development or partnership. It must instead be analysed within the broader historical continuity of European domination on the African continent. Contemporary imperialism operates through military agreements, debt dependency, extractive economic arrangements, intelligence coordination, and the political management of compliant local elites who safeguard external interests while domestic populations experience deepening inequality and dispossession.
The recent collapse of French influence across sections of West Africa has exposed the crisis confronting the modern French imperial project. Popular uprisings and political resistance in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger demonstrated growing rejection of foreign military occupation, economic extraction, and externally managed political systems. In response, French strategic interests are increasingly seeking new avenues of influence in East Africa under the language of “security cooperation,” “investment,” and “regional partnership.”
The repression witnessed in Nairobi must therefore be understood as part of a broader effort to secure conditions favourable to foreign capital and geopolitical control. States functioning within neocolonial frameworks cannot tolerate organised anti-imperialist consciousness because such consciousness directly threatens the structures of accumulation and dependency upon which ruling elites depend.
The Arrests Reveal the Fear of International Anti-Imperialist Solidarity
The detention of activists and organisers from Kenya, Greece, South Korea, Britain, and France itself demonstrates the growing international character of resistance to imperialism. The ruling establishment fears solidarity across borders because it undermines the divisions historically used to fragment workers, students, and oppressed populations. The arrests reveal not confidence, but insecurity within political systems that increasingly rely on surveillance, intimidation, and police repression to maintain legitimacy.
The Kenyan state’s decision to disperse detainees across multiple police stations, while reportedly failing to formally process several arrests, further exposes the arbitrary and politically motivated character of the operation. Such tactics are consistent with systems seeking to isolate organisers, weaken collective resistance, and generate fear among politically conscious sections of society.
The criminalisation of anti-imperialist activism also exposes a central contradiction within contemporary African governance. Political elites routinely invoke sovereignty, independence, and development while simultaneously suppressing those who oppose foreign military and economic domination. A government cannot credibly claim to defend national dignity while functioning as an enforcement mechanism for external interests.
The Immediate Release of All Arrested Comrades Is a Democratic Imperative
KEREAL affirms its full solidarity with all arrested comrades and demands their immediate and unconditional release. The continued detention, intimidation, and harassment of political organisers represents an assault not only on the individuals targeted, but on the broader democratic rights of workers, students, and progressive movements throughout Africa.
Solidarity must extend beyond symbolic condemnation. It requires sustained opposition to foreign military penetration, exploitative economic agreements, and the consolidation of neocolonial political structures across the continent. It also requires the strengthening of international links between anti-imperialist organisations, labour movements, student formations, and revolutionary political forces confronting the global system of exploitation and domination.
History demonstrates that repression cannot permanently suppress organised political struggle. Detentions, police violence, surveillance, and intimidation may delay movements temporarily, but they simultaneously expose the fragility of systems sustained through coercion rather than popular legitimacy. Every arrest carried out against anti-imperialist organisers further clarifies the political order currently being defended.
The question confronting Africa today is whether the continent will remain subordinated to external powers through military dependence, debt, and resource extraction, or whether workers, peasants, students, and progressive political forces will succeed in establishing genuine political and economic sovereignty.
KEREAL therefore reiterates its demand for the immediate and unconditional release of all arrested comrades. The repression must end. French imperial expansion in Africa must be resisted in all its forms. International solidarity against imperialism must deepen and organise itself with greater clarity and determination in the period ahead.
Central Organising Committee
Kenya Red Alliance (KEREAL)
13 May 2026