By Selly Neema – Policy & Communications Expert
Early last year, the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Digital Economy, in collaboration with other institutions, launched Kenya’s first-ever National AI Strategy (2025–2030). This marked a significant milestone in positioning Kenya as a leader in AI across Africa. As technology increasingly shapes foreign policy and global geopolitics, Kenya has joined other states in actively influencing this emerging space. This shift is evident in the establishment of the Office of the Special Envoy on Technology, signalling a growing emphasis on tech and digital diplomacy, as well as the inclusion of a Science, Technology, and Innovation Diplomacy Pillar in Kenya’s revised Foreign Policy. Together, these efforts aim to position Kenya as a regional innovation hub.
The National AI Strategy is structured around seven core themes:
1. AI Digital Infrastructure – Investing in data centres, cloud computing, and improved connectivity such as 5G.
2. Data – Building a reliable, secure, and ethical data ecosystem to train AI models that are relevant to Kenya’s context.
3. AI Research and Development (R&D) and Innovation – Supporting local solutions, improving funding mechanisms, and creating viable markets for homegrown innovations.
4. Talent Development – Strengthening AI education in schools and universities while equipping youth with relevant digital skills.
5. Governance – Developing smart regulatory frameworks that protect citizens while enabling innovation.
6. Investment – Attracting both public and private funding to scale Kenya’s AI ecosystem.
7. Ethics, Equity, and Inclusion – Ensuring AI systems align with national values, protect rights, and include marginalised groups, particularly women and minorities.
While the strategy addresses many of the critical issues required for AI adoption, having a strategy alone is not sufficient. Translating policy into tangible outcomes will require substantial resources, strong political will, and well-structured strategic partnerships. So how does Kenya move from intention to implementation?
In an article, Kgothatso Meka, Founder of Tiego Capital, outlines six layers of sovereignty critical to AI adoption: energy, infrastructure, data, compute, models, and talent and institutional sovereignty. These layers emphasise the importance of building foundational capacity, not only for Kenya but for the African continent. Notably, Kenya’s National AI Strategy already acknowledges several systemic challenges, including AI skills gaps; regulatory overlaps and conflicts; poor data quality, availability, and accessibility; infrastructural constraints; limited investment in local R&D; gaps in equity and inclusion; low levels of digital literacy; and uneven prioritisation of AI initiatives across sectors.
To bring these issues into perspective, it is useful to examine a few. The Strategy recognises that Kenya lacks a comprehensive AI-specific policy framework, an absence that could hinder research, innovation, investment, and adoption. A relevant example is the copyright challenge faced by Masakhane, an organisation championing Natural Language Processing (NLP) research for African languages. Masakhane had been using the JW300 dataset, a multilingual corpus of over 300 African languages derived from Biblical texts produced by the Jehovah’s Witnesses, with an average of 100,000 parallel sentences per language. However, after seeking legal advice from the Centre for Intellectual Property and Information Technology Law (CIPIT) in Nairobi, Masakhane learned that the dataset’s copyright notice did not permit text and data mining (TDM). A formal request for permission was declined, prompting Masakhane to discontinue use of the dataset and redirect efforts toward building their own datasets through ethical, community-driven initiatives. This case highlights the urgent need for clear legal and ethical frameworks that support local AI research and innovation.
Closely linked to this is the broader risk of digital colonialism and more specifically, data colonialism. The Strategy acknowledges Kenya’s heavy reliance on foreign-owned data centres for data storage and processing, a dependency that poses serious risks, including loss of data control and potential threats to national security. Kenya’s revised Foreign Policy already recognises cyber domains as “emerging dimensions” of national territory under the Territorial Integrity, Sovereignty, and Security of Citizenry. This makes a strong case for strong data governance frameworks that safeguard national interests. Such frameworks are essential to preserving culture and heritage, strengthening internal capacity (including talent) and reducing overreliance on outsourced digital products and expertise, while asserting control over local digital services.
Infrastructure remains another major constraint. Kenya faces deficits in broadband connectivity (such as fibre networks and 5G), computing power (including access to GPUs), and reliable energy supply to support data centres. These elements are deeply interconnected. Water availability, which is critical for cooling data centres, must also be considered through environmental conservation and public health lenses. As Kenya advances in this space, prioritising safe and sustainable infrastructure solutions will be critical. Where national capacity is limited, regional collaboration such as shared energy infrastructure and compute resources could offer a practical pathway forward. This would also necessitate shared standards, including harmonised data governance frameworks, potentially serving as a catalyst for deeper regional cooperation in AI adoption.
Ultimately, Kenya’s AI National Strategy must be driven by purpose, not performance. The country should aim to deliver real, measurable value to the lives of Kenyans particularly in public service delivery, economic opportunity, and social inclusion. Achieving this will require sustained collaboration across public–private partnerships, inter-ministerial coordination, and
Engagement with academia, civil society, and the private sector. At the same time, Kenya must be deliberate about prioritisation, focusing on use cases where AI can address pressing national challenges while remaining realistic about current state capacity. Some initiatives can (and should) run in parallel as institutions, skills, and infrastructure are strengthened. Above all, the safety, rights, and well-being of Kenyans must remain central, supported by strong governance, accountability, and ethical safeguards. If implemented with clarity, collaboration, and care, AI can become a public good that supports inclusive growth and long-term national development.
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