H.E William Kabogo Gitau, E.G.H

Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Information, Communications and the Digital Economy (MICDE).

[H.E William Kabogo Gitau, E.G.H @honkabogo]

This morning I joined fellow ministers at the WSIS Ministerial Roundtable on AI, Digital Transformation and Inclusion in Geneva.
A third of humanity is still offline. AI will not close that gap on its own. Deliberate policy will.
I shared Kenya's experience: over 22,000 government services on eCitizen serving more than 13 million Kenyans, a National AI Strategy that puts people at the centre, and a Data Protection Act anchoring trust since 2019. I was also honest about our constraints. Skills, compute and quality data remain the hard part for much of the Global South.
Kenya committed to translate the WSIS resolutions into a national digital roadmap, reporting progress from 2027.
#WSIS2026 #AIforGood #DigitalKenya

[H.E William Kabogo Gitau, E.G.H @honkabogo]

I joined the AI for Good workshop on Cities That Think and Act, on how agentic AI, physical AI and the Citiverse are changing the way cities serve their people.
My message was simple. Kenya's smart city story did not begin with sensors. It began with a payment. M-Pesa taught millions of Kenyans to trust digital services, and that trust is the foundation every city system must earn.
I shared how we are building on it: Konza Technopolis as a long term investment in smart urban infrastructure, broad public engagement before major deployments, and legal safeguards that keep a human accountable for every decision a machine informs.
The ITU launched new tools and standards for people-centred smart cities, now reaching over 300 cities worldwide. Kenya will keep contributing to that work, because the choices cities make on AI today will decide who benefits from it tomorrow.
#AIforGood #Citiverse #DigitalKenya #KonzaTechnopolis

[H.E William Kabogo Gitau, E.G.H @honkabogo]

Today in Geneva I met H.E. Eng. Raafat Hendy, Egypt's ICT Minister and Chair of this year's WSIS Forum.
We agreed to move the Kenya-Egypt ICT MOU from paper to action. A joint team starts work immediately and meets in Nairobi within 45 days.
Skilling comes first. Egypt is sharing its Digital Egypt training curricula, and we will roll them out to our young people through the digital hubs in every ward and our Jitume centres.
#WSIS2026 #DigitalEconomy #KenyaEgypt

[H.E William Kabogo Gitau, E.G.H @honkabogo]

Productive bilateral today in Geneva with a senior United States delegation.

We discussed Kenya's digital priorities: expanding connectivity across the country, skills for our young people, and partnerships that bring investment into our digital economy. We also compared notes on AI policy and keeping children safe online.

Follow-ups are already under way.

#DigitalKenya #AIforGood #KenyaUSA

[H.E William Kabogo Gitau, E.G.H @honkabogo]

Today at the AI for Good Global Summit in Geneva, I closed the session on Building AI and Robotics Education in Africa on the Youth Stage.
The proudest moment belonged to the children. Kenyan pupils from our public schools were among the winners of the Giga competition, alongside brilliant young people from Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa. They built working robots to solve problems drawn from their own communities.
Kenya is one of five pilot countries in this ITU-led programme, working with Giga, Google and the I Am Angel Foundation to build a model for AI and robotics education that any African country can adopt. 788 of our public schools are already connected under the Last Mile Connectivity to Schools Programme, on the way to 1,000 by December and every school by 2030.
By 2050, one in three young people in the world will be African. Whether that generation enters the AI economy as builders will be decided in classrooms across our continent over the next decade. That work has started.
To our young winners: keep building. Kenya is proud of you.
#AIforGood #Giga #DigitalKenya

[H.E William Kabogo Gitau, E.G.H @honkabogo]

🇰🇪🤝🇪🇺 Productive talks today with our EU partners on Kenya's digital future.
On the agenda: Global Gateway Phase 2, AI compute access for Kenyan researchers, EU data adequacy (milestone expected in September), and strengthening undersea cable resilience.
Next step: turning agreements into action.
#KenyaEU #DigitalEconomy #GlobalGateway

[H.E William Kabogo Gitau, E.G.H @honkabogo]

Today in Geneva, I held a productive bilateral meeting with the delegation of the Kingdom of the Netherlands on artificial intelligence, child online safety and digital infrastructure.
We agreed that the time for signing agreements that sit on shelves is over. Our shared focus now is execution: moving from Memoranda of Understanding to concrete, measurable implementation.
Our discussions covered protecting children online, including empowering parents and educators and exploring a minimum age for social media use. We also exchanged views on responsible AI, from drought prediction and agriculture to the energy demands of data centres, and on Kenya's digital agenda: expanding our fibre backbone from 47,000 km towards 100,000 km, establishing digital hubs in all 1,450 wards, and growing the digital economy beyond its current 8.5 per cent of GDP.
I have invited our Dutch partners to Nairobi to deepen this cooperation, including support for green data centres and regional compute capacity.
Kenya and the Netherlands share a conviction that AI must work for people, starting with our children.

[H.E William Kabogo Gitau, E.G.H @honkabogo]

Productive bilateral today in Geneva with H.E. Dr Karsten Wildberger, Germany's Federal Minister for Digital Transformation and Government Modernisation.

We agreed to move our digital partnership from paper to practice: a joint working group will now turn the Kenya-Germany MoU on Digital Policy and Infrastructure into action, covering fibre rollout, AI for public services, Swahili language models and digital skills for our youth.

I invited the Minister and German companies to visit Kenya and see the opportunities at first hand.

#DigitalKenya #AIforGood #KenyaGermany

[H.E William Kabogo Gitau, E.G.H @honkabogo]

I joined fellow members of the Africa AI Council for our Second Meeting at the ITU Headquarters in Geneva, convened by Smart Africa on the sidelines of the AI for Good Global Summit.
We are validating a Two-Year Strategic Plan to advance Africa's AI sovereignty across compute, data, governance, investment and talent, including an ambition to train at least 3 million Africans in AI over the next three years.
Kenya remains committed to a coordinated African approach, where AI solutions are built in Africa, for African realities.
#AfricaAICouncil #SmartAfrica #AIforGood #DigitalKenya

[H.E William Kabogo Gitau, E.G.H @honkabogo]

Today in Geneva, Kenya joined Spain, the European Union and France to launch the Coalition for Children's Rights and Protection in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.
By 2050, one in four people in the world will be African. Yet the AI systems our children use often do not speak their languages, and safeguards that hold in English can fail in a child's home language. Every child's life is of equal worth in every language.
Kenya committed to serve as a regional node for the rapid takedown of AI-generated child abuse material, to deliver practical tools for schools and child protection institutions, and to contribute our 47-county child online protection survey to the Coalition's scientific work.
Children deserve equal protection online regardless of geography, language or market size.
#AIforGood #WSIS2026 #AIDialogue #ChildOnlineProtection

[H.E William Kabogo Gitau, E.G.H @honkabogo]

@ehdande @coldtusker @ODPP_KE Read his full story and you’ll understand who he really is. Wolf in a sheep suit

[H.E William Kabogo Gitau, E.G.H @honkabogo]

A productive meeting today with Dr Cosmas Zavazava, Director of the ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT), reaffirming Kenya's strong partnership with the International Telecommunication Union.
We reviewed the milestones achieved together and mapped out our shared priorities for Kenya's digital future from AI governance and data sovereignty to affordable connectivity and capacity building.
Kenya was recognised for its strong connectivity and forward-looking regulatory frameworks, and we discussed scaling our ambitious plan of a digital hub in every ward to bring skills and opportunity closer to every citizen. Central to it all is homegrown, quality data because AI only works fairly for Africa when it is built on our own local context.
We deeply value ITU's support and look forward to deepening this collaboration in the months ahead. 🇰🇪
#DigitalKenya #AIforGood #ITU #ConnectivityForAll

[H.E William Kabogo Gitau, E.G.H @honkabogo]

A valuable meeting today with ITU Secretary-General Doreen Bogdan-Martin, reaffirming Kenya's strong partnership with the International Telecommunication Union. 🇰🇪🤝
We discussed the priorities shaping Kenya's digital future protecting our children online, building AI skills for our young people, and organising quality data so AI works fairly for Africa.
Safeguarding children online starts in our homes, schools, and communities. Kenya stands ready to support and scale these initiatives together with ITU.
#DigitalKenya #AIforGood #ITU

[H.E William Kabogo Gitau, E.G.H @honkabogo]

Today in Geneva, I had the honour of delivering Kenya's national statement at the inaugural UN Global Dialogue on Artificial Intelligence Governance, speaking on behalf of the people and the Republic of Kenya and of H.E. President William Samoei Ruto.
Kenya's approach to this Dialogue is practical. Artificial intelligence must expand opportunity and prosperity for all countries and must not deepen existing divides. For many developing countries, that divide is felt in compute, data and language. We called for cooperation that moves from principles to implementation: affordable compute, open and representative datasets, stronger skills and fair financing for the institutions that must govern and deploy AI safely.
We also shared what is working at home. Our eCitizen platform now offers more than 22,000 government services to over 13 million Kenyans. This year we launched the Government Interoperability Framework connecting systems across our public service. Kenya is rolling out the UNESCO and Oxford course on AI in government, training 20,000 public officers by 2027, and we are one of five countries piloting AI and robotics education in schools with the ITU.
Kenya helped build this consensus as co-facilitator of the WSIS+20 review, and we will keep contributing so that the United Nations remains the central space for coordinating AI governance, and so that the benefits of AI belong to all.
#AIGovernance #GlobalDialogue #DigitalKenya #Wsis2026

[H.E William Kabogo Gitau, E.G.H @honkabogo]

I had the pleasure of paying a courtesy call on H.E. Dr. Fancy Too, Kenya’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations and other International Organizations in Geneva, Switzerland.

Our discussions reaffirmed Kenya’s commitment to advancing multilateral cooperation in digital transformation, innovation and responsible Artificial Intelligence as we participate in the Inaugural Global Dialogue on Artificial Intelligence and WSIS 2026.

We remain committed to leveraging technology, partnerships and global collaboration to accelerate Kenya’s Digital Superhighway agenda and create opportunities for all.