Kenyas government is on edge as youth-led agitation calling for the Presidents resignation, initially sparked by the contentious Finance Bill 2024, gains momentum through a potent mix of homegrown artificial intelligence (AI) tools and social media. While the Finance Bill 2024, with its raft of unpopular tax hikes, may be gone, the anger it ignited continues to rage, fueled by digital tools, leaving the government scrambling to contain the fallout.
This concern was palpable in a communique sent to ambassadors in Nairobi by Kenyas Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi on July 2nd. Mudavadi specifically flagged concerns about AI use and misinformation, echoing anxieties highlighted in the World Economic Forums Global Risks Report 2024.
The report, according to Mudavadi, pinpoints misinformation and disinformation as the biggest short-term global risk, driven in large part by the potential of AI, in the hands of bad actors, to flood global information systems with false narratives.
Kenyan youth, a significant portion of whom are tech-savvy millennials and Gen Z, have been at the forefront of the protests. Theyve created chatbots like the Corrupt Politicians GPT to expose graft, and the Finance Bill GPT to translate the bills complexities into actionable information for the public, as a report by Semafor highlights. These chatbots even share lawmakers phone numbers, enabling constituents to voice their concerns directly.
This digital activism comes despite Kenyas ongoing development of a national AI strategy. The strategy is seen as a potential stepping stone for future AI regulations in the country.
