As Kenya prepares to finalize its landmark Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technologies Policy, local digital creators and media representatives are calling on the government to ensure robust legal protections and formal representation for the country’s creative economy.
The Bloggers Association of Kenya (BAKE) has formally submitted its position paper on the draft policy. While welcoming the Ministry’s vision to establish Kenya as a continental leader in AI and emerging tech, BAKE warns that the current draft overlooks the vital role played by bloggers, podcasters, vloggers, journalists, and independent media houses.
According to BAKE, the creator economy is now a central pillar of Kenya’s digital ecosystem. While creators rely heavily on AI tools for content research, production, and distribution, the association argues that the policy must balance technological advancement with intellectual property rights, fair competition, and freedom of expression.
To bridge these gaps, BAKE’s submission outlines five priority recommendations:
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Formal Governance Representation: BAKE is demanding dedicated seats for creator and media bodies within national AI oversight structures. While the draft includes representation for research institutions and traditional private sector entities, BAKE argues that digital content stakeholders must participate directly in decisions regarding platform regulation, synthetic media, and content moderation.
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Intellectual Property and Ownership Clarity: With AI tool adoption surging, questions surrounding authorship and commercial licensing remain unclear. BAKE recommends that the policy explicitly recognize human creative direction in AI-assisted works while setting up distinct legal rules for fully automated, AI-generated content.
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Protection Against Unconsented Model Training: BAKE raised serious concerns over tech companies scraping Kenyan digital content, including blogs, podcasts, investigative reporting, and videos, to train AI models without creators’ knowledge or consent. The association calls for training dataset transparency, simple opt-out mechanisms, and fair licensing fees when proprietary content fuels commercial AI platforms.
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Tiered, Proportionate Regulation: Applying identical compliance burdens to global tech conglomerates and individual local creators risks stifling grassroots innovation. BAKE proposes a scalable, tiered regulatory framework where obligations match the size of the entity, the complexity of the AI system, and the level of risk to the public.
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Constitutional Protection for Free Expression: While supporting strict measures against malicious deepfakes, BAKE urges policymakers to carve out explicit safeguards for legitimate uses of AI in satire, political commentary, investigative journalism, education, and the arts, in line with Article 33 of the Kenyan Constitution.
By addressing these core issues before enacting the final policy, BAKE maintains that Kenya can build an AI ecosystem that is both globally competitive and locally protective of its creative talent.