Stakeholders Rally Behind Ethical AI to Transform Kenya’s Agriculture and Healthcare
By Editorial Team
NAIROBI, July 6, 2026 — Experts from government, civil society, development organisations and the technology sector have called for the responsible development of artificial intelligence (AI) to ensure it delivers practical solutions for farmers, patients and underserved communities rather than becoming another short-lived innovation.
The call was made during a high-level forum on AI in Agriculture and Health, convened by Samawati Collective and SemaBOX at Baraza Media Lab in Nairobi. The meeting also marked the launch of a partnership between the two organisations aimed at advancing public-interest AI in agriculture and healthcare in line with Kenya’s National AI Strategy 2025–2030.
Bringing together policymakers, innovators, funders, healthcare professionals and civil society leaders, the forum examined how AI can be harnessed to address real-world challenges while remaining inclusive, accessible and community-driven.
Discussions focused on a critical question: as AI becomes increasingly integrated into Kenya’s farms and healthcare systems, how can it be developed to solve the everyday challenges facing citizens instead of becoming another pilot project that fades once donor funding ends?
Agriculture remains a key pillar of Kenya’s economy, contributing about one-third of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Smallholder farmers produce nearly 80 per cent of Kenya’s agricultural output, yet many still lack access to timely weather forecasts, market intelligence and advisory services that AI-powered technologies can provide.
In the health sector, participants noted that about 90 per cent of maternal and neonatal deaths in Kenya are preventable, with many linked to delayed health-seeking behaviour, including failure to recognise danger signs such as severe headaches and excessive bleeding during pregnancy.
Samawati Collective Executive Director Maurice Otieno said AI is already influencing decisions in the country’s clinics and farms, making it essential for communities to have a voice in shaping how the technology is designed and deployed.
“AI is already making decisions in Kenya’s clinics and farms. The only question is whether the people those decisions affect have a seat at the table,” said Otieno.
“This convening is our answer. Public-interest AI must be built with communities—farmers, mothers, clinicians and citizens—not simply deployed on them. We are not here to admire the technology; we are here to decide, together, what it must deliver.”
Otieno said the partnership between Samawati Collective and SemaBOX seeks to build a movement that brings together government ministries, innovators, healthcare professionals, farmers and citizens to co-create AI solutions that address Kenya’s development priorities.
SemaBOX Founder Dan Aceda said Africa must lead conversations on emerging technologies rather than allowing others to shape its digital future.
“Africa’s story about technology is too often told about us rather than by us,” he said.
“SemaBOX exists to put the microphone in African hands. Through this partnership, the mothers, farmers and clinicians who live with these technologies every day will be the ones shaping the narrative and, ultimately, the tools themselves.”
The panel featured Jacaranda Health Kenya Programs Director Javan Waita, Esri Eastern Africa Industry Manager for Natural Resources Tina Mkara and Villgro Africa Head of Acceleration Immanuel Momanyi.
Throughout the discussions, panellists explored AI’s potential to improve maternal healthcare, strengthen food security through geospatial technologies, sustain innovation beyond donor funding and prevent technology from widening existing social and economic inequalities.
Speaking on maternal healthcare, Waita said Jacaranda Health’s AI-enabled PROMPTS platform has expanded to reach about four million mothers across Kenya and continues to enrol approximately 800,000 more each year.
“When we started, our nurses could answer about 100 questions a day. Today, PROMPTS receives around 15,000, with AI triaging every one of them and identifying the roughly seven per cent that signal danger signs before escalating them to clinical nurses,” he said.
He said the innovation has contributed to a 27 per cent increase in health-seeking behaviour while costing about US$2.50 per mother over her lifetime.
Addressing the sustainability of innovation, Momanyi urged national and county governments to allocate dedicated funding for innovation to enable locally developed technologies to scale.
“At a recent Council of Governors meeting in Kisumu, not one of the 47 county governments had a budget line for innovation,” he said.
“If you want true scale, government is the biggest client you will ever have. The startups that survive are the ones that build their models into the systems that already exist.”
Waita said Jacaranda Health has adopted a cost-sharing model with county governments, noting that Kisumu and Tharaka Nithi counties now fully finance enrolment costs for the PROMPTS platform, while Mombasa County covers 80 per cent. Integrating the platform into government electronic medical records has also reduced enrolment costs by more than half.
“If Jacaranda were to shut down tomorrow, the priority is that the solution survives,” he said.
On agriculture, Mkara said AI’s greatest value lies not only in predicting weather patterns but also in helping farmers respond effectively to climate-related challenges.
“An experienced farmer often already knows when it will rain,” she said.
“The real value of AI is in the aftermath—linking that farmer to insurance, getting drought-resistant seeds to where they are needed, and turning satellite, drone and weather data into decisions governments can act on.”
She added that AI could also improve public accountability by helping detect fraudulent health insurance claims and enhancing the efficiency of public spending.
Panellists further cautioned that AI could deepen inequality if barriers such as the high cost of data, limited digital literacy and low smartphone penetration are not addressed. They called for AI systems to incorporate indigenous knowledge, including traditional weather forecasting methods and local medicinal practices, alongside scientific research.
The forum concluded with a renewed commitment from stakeholders to champion ethical, inclusive and locally driven AI solutions capable of improving healthcare, strengthening agriculture and enhancing public service delivery across Kenya.
