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Draft / proposedProposed · Strategy / action plan

Draft Kenya Artificial Intelligence and Other Emerging Technologies Policy, 2026

Record KE-02

Issued by
Ministry of Information, Communications and the Digital Economy (State Department for ICT and the Digital Economy)
Jurisdiction
Kenya
Level · region
National · Sub-Saharan Africa
Published / adopted
2026-07
Language
English

Summary

Draft national policy for public comment adopting a risk-based, lifecycle and effects-based approach to AI and other emerging technologies used in or affecting Kenya. It proposes an AI and Other Emerging Technologies Governance Act, a statutory National Council as central regulator with binding guidelines, national risk classification, a registry of overseen systems, regulatory sandboxes and oversight of frontier-model testing; a Kenya AI Safety Institute for safety research, testing, red-teaming and incident analysis; an AI incident reporting framework; testing protocols for high-risk systems; procurement safeguards; human oversight; child safeguards; and human control for defence uses.

Safety topics

risk-based classificationsafety instituteincident reportingevaluation & testinghuman oversightnational security & military

Status notes

Dated July 2026; the ministry's call for public comments set a submission deadline of 4 August 2026, with written submissions to the Committee on Artificial Intelligence and Other Emerging Technologies. It builds on the Kenya AI Strategy 2025-2030 (KE-01), the Digital Master Plan 2022-2032 and the Data Protection Act 2019, and underwent legal review, including by the Office of the Attorney General. For systems placed into service after the policy takes effect, full compliance would be required once the relevant implementing regulations come into force; systems already in operation would have a two-year transition, and high-risk legacy systems three years to comply fully.

Sources

Open the official source https://ict.go.ke/sites/default/files/AI%20Policy%20Doc/draft-kenya-ai-and-emerging-technologies-policy-2026.pdf

Secondary source: https://ict.go.ke/sites/default/files/AI%20Policy%20Doc/index.html

Local copy

Archived. Last attempt 2026-10-18 04:08:28 UTC

Official source (third-party copy, not published) archive/KE-02/2026-10-16/official.pdf
Retrieved 2026-10-16 11:39:42 UTC
SHA-256 87329f33eff5cb0fe955040e1c65b947895536893b2e57bd3b0c4761c6daec26
Secondary source (third-party copy, not published) archive/KE-02/2026-10-16/secondary.html
Retrieved 2026-10-16 11:39:45 UTC
SHA-256 54c32b56fc35b2bd266ebb1b0df272e55d52cb88d372b2a8b6231e96553c6f53

Verification

A
The instrument's own official text, or an official register, was stored and confirms the title, date and status. checked 2026-10-18 · official-url-fetched
Recheck of 18 Oct 2026. Stored: the draft policy PDF (226 pages) and the ministry's public-participation page, both from ict.go.ke (16 Oct 2026). The PDF confirms the title, the July 2026 date, the issuing ministry and state department and the provisions summarised; the public-participation page calls it a draft, invites comments and gives the deadline of 4 August 2026. The PDF's cover reads 'Kenya Artificial Intelligence and Other Emerging Technologies Policy' without the word draft, and its foreword calls it 'the Kenya AI and other Emerging Technologies Policy, 2026'. Nothing stored shows Cabinet approval, a sessional paper or a bill after the consultation. The December 2025 Implementation Roadmap of KE-01, mentioned in the earlier notes, is not among the stored files and is no longer cited.
Second check: Independent check by Claude Code (claude-sonnet-5-5), 2026-10-18: 7 field(s) supported.

History

  1. 2026-10-18notes: Dated July 2026; the ministry's public-participation page set a submission deadl → Dated July 2026; the ministry's call for public comments set a submission deadli — the December 2025 Implementation Roadmap of KE-01 is dropped (not in a stored file), and the remark on Cabinet approval moves to verification.note as an absence; the compliance timing now follows section 1.5.5, which ties full compliance to implementing regulations without naming the Governance Act, and adds the transition periods; the other foundations and the legal review are added2026-10-18-recheck-mena-africa-1 · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)

Related records

Kenya AI Strategy Kenya · Published (non-binding, current)

Citation

Ministry of Information, Communications and the Digital Economy (State Department for ICT and the Digital Economy). Draft Kenya Artificial Intelligence and Other Emerging Technologies Policy, 2026. 2026-07. https://ict.go.ke/sites/default/files/AI%20Policy%20Doc/draft-kenya-ai-and-emerging-technologies-policy-2026.pdf. Status: Draft / proposed; verified 2026-10-18 (level A). Local copy archive/KE-02/2026-10-16/official.pdf retrieved 2026-10-16 11:39:42 UTC, SHA-256 87329f33eff5cb0fe955040e1c65b947895536893b2e57bd3b0c4761c6daec26. Every AI Policy Ever, version 1.18 (snapshot 2026-10-18), record KE-02.

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