Powerful corporations, technology platforms and global financial systems are taking on a role once associated with colonial powers, lawyer Harrison Kinyanjui has warned, saying Africa risks losing control of its resources, information and development choices despite having gained political independence.
Speaking during a Radio Generation interview on Thursday, the Advocate of the Supreme Court of Kenya said the nature of foreign influence had changed, with multinational companies and international economic players now shaping key areas of Africa’s economic and technological life.
Kinyanjui said the growing reach of major technology and financial companies should prompt African countries to question who controls the systems they increasingly depend on and what that influence means for their long-term independence.
“Now, neo-colonization, they need something to conquer, and the overlords right now are your big corporations, what they are calling stakeholders? YouTube, BlackRock, Vanguard, and the like,” Kinyanjui said.
He also raised concern over the growing use of the term stakeholder capitalism, arguing that African countries need to look closely at the influence powerful corporations have on economic decisions.
According to Kinyanjui, the discussion is no longer limited to traditional political control but now includes the way global economic structures and technology affect societies.
He pointed to digital platforms as an area where corporations can gain wide access to information while also influencing how people use services, access content and interact with technology.
“If someone comes and sells you a phone, and they tell you that on that phone I've loaded my Netflix, or on that phone I've uploaded my search engine called Google. Actually, they want every information about you,” he said.
“And what is all that for? It's control. Because the moment you tell me that if you remove, if you disable the advertisement that they want to sell to you, they tell you that I can't use that phone. In other words, that service or the website is inaccessible to you. Now that becomes diabolical,” he added.
Kinyanjui said the same concerns should apply to African artists and intellectual property, warning that dependence on major global digital platforms could affect creators’ ability to control their work and determine how it is distributed.
He called for closer attention to the systems governing technology, finance and information, arguing that political freedom alone would not be enough if African countries continued to rely on outside players for important economic and digital infrastructure.
His remarks came during a wider discussion on Pan-Africanism, sovereignty and Africa’s push for greater self-determination.
The discussion also focused on the need for African countries to strengthen their economic and technological independence by developing homegrown systems, protecting local resources and intellectual property, and gaining greater control over decisions that shape the continent’s long-term development and future.