Published: April 6, 2025, 05:42 (EAT)
Prime CS Musalia Mudavadi is working on past meetings. Photos | OPCS
Kenya is positioned as Africa’s leading AI (AI) hub for model innovation, promoting sustainable development, economic growth and social inclusion.
Prime Minister Musalia Mudavadi’s secretary said Kenya is striving to lead AI research and applications, and is striving to lead with AI moving into the future in mind.
Mudavadi, who represented Kenya at the Global AI Summit 2025 in Kigali, confirmed that Kenya is considering ensuring that its AI ecosystem is safe.
“There is already a very serious conversation going on in Kenya, and our focus will implement strategies that provide an inclusive framework to guide Kenya to leverage the transformational power of AI, ensuring that deployment benefits all sectors of society while adhering to ethical principles and inclusiveness,” Mudavadi said.
“As a continent, we need to not allow ourselves to be driven by fear. Fear should not drive us out of town with this artificial intelligence agenda.” Added Mudavadi.
Mudavadi noted that Kenya is setting a government-led vision for ethical, comprehensive, innovation-driven AI adoption, not only shaping Kenya’s future, but also a strategic landmark on the continent.
He said he is supported by the recently released First National Artificial Intelligence Strategy (2025-2030), Ministry of Information, Communications and Digital Economy.
He explained that the core of this strategy is Kenya’s desire to adopt AI technology and lead the innovation and commercialization of AI models, creating solutions tailored to its unique needs and the needs of the continent.
“Investment in education will be extremely important considering the budget allocation for one education of 600 billion Ksh. We need to ensure that the components of the budget are driven to the right programmes tailored to tailor the youth towards AI-driven technology,” explained Mudavadi.
“Kenya’s program, focusing on science, technology, engineering and mathematics, will be redefine and strengthened as there is a large techno-savvy population that must be equipped first,” he added.
Mudavadi said healthcare, agriculture, financial services and government are designated as strategic AI priorities in Kenya and with smart agriculture.
The expanded digital infrastructure, data centers, cloud resources, and national research hubs are among other resources with key legislation that Kenya is drafted to guide this space.
“What Kenya is doing is having sweeteners to attract young people in sectors like agriculture. That’s where AI comes to ensure that young people are interested in sectors where AI was originally heavily dependent on traditional labour-intensive practices,” he focused on Prime CS.
In Kigali, the leading Cabinet Secretary outlined Kenya’s intervention to ensure that it acquires enough computing infrastructure to enhance AI, given that it is one of the biggest producers of renewable energy in Africa and ranks among the top five in Africa in Africa according to the Oxford Insights ‘2022 report.
He told the summit that Kenya is investing heavily in building data centres to address the lack of computing infrastructure, keeping in mind that energy is becoming a critical infrastructure for powering data centres in the future.
Prime Minister Musalia Mudavadi’s secretary said Kenya is striving to lead AI research and applications, and is striving to lead with AI moving into the future in mind.
Mudavadi says that Kenya’s grid is about 93% green energy focused on renewable and green energy, and that a key component of energy investment as a continent will help steadily drive the AI agenda.
“We also need to look at how we invest in the energy sector as a continent, because in my view it has become so expensive for people to invest in the energy sector on the continent. We need to look at this component critically, and what would be the kind of thing people who want to come and invest in solar, twin energy, would want to give,” he told the Global AI Summit.
“We also need to work closely, coordinate as a continent, direct resources to improve the capabilities of artificial intelligence and technology as a whole. Policymakers on the continent should keep in mind that artificial intelligence is at the heart of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the power of reshaping the economy, the power of redefineing, and the rules of progress.” Mudavadi added.
The Summit acknowledged that Africa’s future on AI should be built by design rather than by default.
“As a government, we don’t have enough resources to promote this AI and other technologies. As a continent, we need to loosen up, put the private sector in place, work with them, and ensure we can thrive in almost every sector,” Mudavadi said.
The African Union has already adopted many policy frameworks that will enable the continent to develop AI strategies by establishing a 5-year, gradual, gradual plan between 2025 and 2026 to 2026.
