Last month, Kenya’s State Department for Parliamentary Affairs unveiled its Artificial Intelligence (AI) Strategy for 2025 to 2030. As the global AI race intensifies, this roadmap aims to position Kenya not just as a consumer of AI technology but as a regional leader in innovation, ethical deployment and inclusive digital transformation.
“The successful implementation of AI requires a sound legal foundation. As a department, we are committed to ensuring that AI and digital transformation policies are anchored in law to facilitate innovation, efficiency, and economic growth,” said Principal Secretary Dr. Aurelia Rono.
The strategy focuses on ways to use AI to drive socio-economic development, improve public service delivery and empower the Kenyan workforce for the future.
Here are the key objectives at the heart of the strategy:
Establish AI Governance and Regulatory Framework
Kenya plans to create clear and adaptive policies that encourage responsible and ethical AI development. Some of these will include data protection, algorithmic transparency and accountability frameworks to make sure AI benefits all citizens while minimizing potential harms. The framework will be benchmarked against global standards such as UNESCO AI principles, OECD guidelines.
The country plans to achieve this through:
- Reviewing existing laws and creating new ones where necessary to govern AI use and development.
- Focus on human-centered AI, ensuring technologies respect human rights, avoid any bias and promote fairness.
- Establishing an AI Council or Taskforce to advise on policy, ethics and oversight. This council will include members from academia, civil society, government and the private sector.
- Encourage AI systems used in public services to be explainable and subject to impact assessments.
- Legal frameworks to help the public understand their rights and how AI affects them.
AI Research and Development
The government plans to support local R&D through the creation of AI research centers and funding mechanisms. This will be beneficial if properly implemented and might go a long way in putting kenya on the map. Through this, the government can encourage collaboration between academia, industry, and government.
Build Human Capital and AI Literacy
The government also hopes to embed AI into the education system, starting from primary schools to universities and TVET institutions. This will also include training of teachers, curriculum development and public awareness.
Promote AI in Public Services
This strategy also recommended the use of AI in healthcare and agriculture to justice and transportation. This will hopefully make government services more efficient, transparent and citizen-centric.
Support Private Sector and Startup Innovation
The strategy shares plans to incentivize local startups and businesses to adopt and develop AI solutions. Access to funding, sandboxes and partnerships will be critical to achieve this goal, as that is what will encourage startups to develop solutions using AI.
Inclusivity and Equity
Kenya is focused on ensuring that AI deployment benefits all citizens. These include underserved and rural communities who tend to be neglected with most technology solutions.. The strategy points out that there should be inclusive data practices and capacity-building programs targeting women, youth and marginalized groups.
Regional and Global Collaboration
Kenya cannot succeed by itself. There is need to engage with international partners to ensure we align with global standards, and position the country as a thought leader in AI policy and innovation in Africa just recently at the Global AI Summit on Africa, Africa made a decisive leap into the future by placing Artificial Intelligence (AI) at the center of its development agenda. The sad thing is that neither the president of Kenya nor the CS ICT was in attendance. If we can’t show up at such events, how serious are we as a country? We need to really think about this as the strategy is clear and bold and political goodwill is what will ensure its implementation.
Now Read: Artificial intelligence (AI) could create a turning point for financial inclusion in Africa
