Kenya National Digital Master Plan 2022-2032

The Kenya National Digital Master Plan 2022-2032 is a strategic roadmap aimed at transforming Kenya into a globally competitive digital economy over the next decade. This master plan builds on previous initiatives like the Kenya National ICT Master Plan 2014-2017 and the Kenya Digital Economy Blueprint, focusing on providing quality, accessible, affordable, reliable, and secure ICT services in government. It outlines key pillars such as digital infrastructure, digital services and data management, digital skills development, and driving digital innovation for entrepreneurship. The plan includes ambitious goals like laying 100,000 kilometres of fibre optic cable, establishing internet hotspots across the country, digitizing government services, enhancing digital skills capacity, implementing a national addressing system, and developing the Kenya software industry

The Digital Master Plan contains extensive references to AI. It starts from acknowledging that ‘AI technologies and capabilities will be the in thing in the next 5–10 years and Kenya cannot afford to be left behind or to be the late laggards’ and sets as an objective the development of an AI master plan to encourage the research, development, and deployment of AI solutions ‘to solve local problems while exporting the same capabilities to other countries’. The plan also envisioned strengthened international partnerships with leading R&D actors in the emerging technologies space, to facilitate technology transfers and attract foreign direct investments.