Kenya

French presence

French Embassy: Nairobi 
French Consulates: Nairobi, Mombasa (honorary consulate) 
French community in Kenya: 1,884 French nationals on the consular register (October 2018) 
French tourists visiting Kenya: approx. 18,000 people.

Visits

• Visits to Kenya: State visit by President Macron (March 2019); Minister for the Ecological and Inclusive Transition (December 2017); Minister for Foreign Affairs (August 2016); Minister for the Environment (April 2016); Minister of State for Foreign Trade (June 2015); Minister of State for Development and Francophonie (April 2015, September 2022, June and September 2023); Minister for Foreign Trade (2012, 2021 and February 2023).
• Visits to France: Official visit (October 2020) and participation in the Paris Peace Forum (November 2018) of President Kenyatta;official visit (January 2023) and participation in the Summit on a New Global Financing Pact of President Ruto (June 2023) ; Vice-President, for Kenya Week at UNESCO (November 2018); Environment Minister (December 2017 and June 2023); Foreign Minister.

Cultural, scientific and technical cooperation

France’s bilateral cooperation is focused on higher education, which is a Kenyan government priority. A scientific cooperation agreement was signed in May 2015 with the Ministry of Education, aimed at boosting cooperation activities. During President Macron’s March 2019 visit to Kenya, a meeting with Kenyan students was organized at the University of Nairobi to promote higher education in France. An agreement on the promotion and exchange of skills and talents was also signed during the visit, with the aim of fostering student mobility.

In the field of scientific cooperation, a technical cooperation agreement between the Kenyan Ministry of Education, Science and Technology and three French research institutes, renewed in March 2019, has also enabled more than 80 joint research programmes in the social sciences, agronomic science for development and in environmental science. The French research institutes involved include IFRA (French Institute for Research in Africa) Nairobi, which carries out many joint scientific cooperation activities including offering scholarships and maintaining relations with universities, as well as events involving all scientific and cultural actors (including the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development – CIRAD and the Research Institute for Development – IRD) and the non-profit sector (NGOs and agencies), as well as events in the framework of bilateral relations (French-German cooperation in Kenya). Created in 2025 and financed equally by France and Kenya, the PAMOJA Hubert Curien Partnership (for researcher mobility supports joint research projects on a two-yearly basis.
 

The robust French-Kenyan cooperation can be seen in the promotion of the French language, the most taught foreign language in Kenya: 400 teachers, 48,000 learners (40,000 in secondary schools, 8,000 in higher education). Kenya has a French school, Lycée Diderot (650 pupils of 53 nationalities), as well as 22 French language resource centres and two Alliance Française branches in Nairobi (3,000 learners) and Mombasa. In reverse, France Éducation International (FEI) promotes teaching of English and enables the provision of 70 Kenyan English language assistants to schools in mainland France.

France is working to professionalize training for the cultural and creative industries actors, providing support for individual projects by talented young people through a Support Fund for Cultural Entrepreneurship (FAEC) for the digital sector (animation, cinema, virtual reality for heritage, etc.), the “CASiK – Creative Art Spaces in Kenya” project, equipping a network of sites in the country with modern facilities and fostering their financial autonomy, and the HEVA Fund created by the Agence Française de Développement (AFD, French Development Agency) to finance and contribute to building the capacities of creative businesses. France also fosters artistic creation in Kenya through support to producers and venues for the organization of national tours of Kenyan artists, the holding of the European Film Festival, working in Team Europe format, and the Nairobi meeting of the (European Union National Institutes for Culture (EUNIC) cluster (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Poland) on support for cultural projects in sub-Saharan Africa.

Other cooperation

In the audiovisual field, France actively participated in the launch of the English version of France 24 on Kenyan digital terrestrial television on 28 March 2018, from the premises of the Alliance Française branch in Nairobi.

Relationship with the European Union

The Delegation of the European Union to Kenya has been led by Henriette Geiger of Germany since September 2021. The Delegation also acts as the base of the EU Special Representative for the Horn of Africa, Annette Weber, also German, whose tenure was last extended by 24 months in July 2024. Apart from France, sixteen other EU Member States have embassies in Nairobi.

While the difficulties encountered following the 2017 elections in Kenya considerably strained relations between the EU and Kenya, several visits at the highest level took place in 2021: European Council President Charles Michel visited Kenya in March, and President Kenyatta travelled to Brussels in June. These visits enabled progress towards establishing an EU-Kenya strategic dialogue. EU High Representative and Vice-President Josep Borrell visited Kenya on 28 and 29 January 2022 to officially launch the EU-Kenya dialogue alongside the Kenyan Cabinet Secretary for Foreign and Diaspora Affairs.

An election observation mission was deployed to Kenya from June to September 2022 to monitor the 9 August general elections. The mission deemed the elections credible and transparent and noted their generally peaceful nature, apart from some isolated incidents.

Negotiations on the EU-Kenya economic partnership agreement came to fruition in June 2023, and the agreement was ratified by the European Parliament in 2024. The agreement includes an exemption from customs duties and quotas for all Kenyan exports to the European single market, while duties on imports of European products to Kenya will gradually be reduced over a 25-year period.

Kenya’s EU Multiannual Indicative Programme (MIP) totalled €324 million for the period 2021-2024. Adopted at the meeting of the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument (NDICI) Committee meeting for sub-Saharan Africa on 18 November 2021, the MIP is built around three priorities: the green transition (€147 million), the human development and digital inclusion (€83.5 million), and democratic governance, peace and stability (€83.5 million). Support measures, including for civil society, are also provided for (€10 million). Following a mid-term review in 2024, additional funding was allocated for the period through to 2027.

In 2022, the European Union allocated €15 million in humanitarian assistance to Kenya, including €2 million in response to drought. This funding sought to help refugees and combat growing food and nutrition insecurity in arid and semi-arid areas. Since 2012, the EU has allocated more than €220 million in humanitarian assistance to Kenya. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the EU and its Member States allocated €86 million to Kenya, to help support its economy and strengthen its health systems.