AI reshaping Kenya’s foreign policy

from MARIA MACHARIA in Nairobi, Kenya
Kenya Bureau
NAIROBI, (CAJ News) – KENYA is assessing the role of artificial intelligence (AI) and other emerging technologies on geopolitics.

Philip Thigo, the country’s Special Envoy on Technology and the German Embassy in the East African country, have been leading the discussions.

At the Foreign Policy x AI Workshop organised by the German Embassy in the capital, Nairobi, Thigo shared key insights on AI’s geopolitical impact, global collaboration and “investing beyond the hype” with a focus on skills, innovative finance, data and computing.

“Kenya’s foreign policy strategy under design boldly addresses digital and tech diplomacy, including generative AI, quantum computing, microchips and other emerging technologies, focusing on international partnerships that deliver public value and address SDGs (sustainable development goals) and our contextual development priorities such as health, climate and use of AI to improve efficiency and services,” Thigo said.

Ambassador Sebastain Groth, Germany’s top envoy to Kenya, Seychelles and Somalia, led his country’s delegation to the workshop in Nairobi, where the future of AI in foreign policy was the dominant topic of discussion.

Kenya, meanwhile, is strengthening its cyber security systems. Last week, members of the national cyber security committee underwent intensive cloud computing security training hosted at Huawei Kenya.

The country has in recent months been battered by public unrest, which the government of William Ruto has partly blamed on foreign-based organisations’ influence in the country.

– CAJ News