Doing AI Right in Africa This essay was first published at HAKI My first essay in this series argued that Africa’s position in the AI revolution is one that offers strategic choice. I posed that Africa’s lateness allows it to choose better, and that its diversity and polycentric structure can be deployed as leverage. All…
AI in Africa This essay was first published at HAKI. Conventional narratives position Africa as perpetually behind, always scrambling to catch up while real progress happens elsewhere. This framing is wrong. Africa’s position outside conventional currents of success need not always be a disadvantage. Sometimes, it is a strategic asset to be deployed. Africa is…
The alarm rings. You surface. It’s getting louder. You feel for your phone to silence it, but your hand knocks it to the floor. Shit. It rattles, insistent, mechanical. You must snooze it. No, you must stop it, once and for all. Reluctant to part with the warm embrace of your bed, you crane a…
THE RECEIPTS When I started writing “IT’S A TRAP“, the Data Sharing Agreement had not yet been disclosed. I analysed The Framework in isolation, and reported the issues I found. These included jurisdictional limits in relying solely on the laws of Kenya, ethical issues around training AI models on sovereign data, the potential of permanent…
Read the sequel, THE RECEIPTS, here. 0. Priorities There is a woman who owns land down the road. It’s a modest parcel, inherited from her father. It is enough to sustain her children, enough to grow some grains when the rains come. But for the past few years, the rains have failed, and her granaries…
A reckoning with Baba 0: Requiem Following the passing of a great man, we often race to eulogise him. And as our traditions require, to the sins of the departed we must grant a merciful amnesia. After all, it is an act of kindness to just let mourners grieve. Following the demise of Raila Amolo…
Power does not corrupt, it reveals. As blood stains are drying on the pavements of Nairobi, the current president of Kenya, William Samoei Ruto, stands as the culmination of Kenya’s democratic experiment. Although Ruto is cloaked in electoral democracy, Kenya’s institutional memory of oppression finds expression through him. By tracing Ruto’s despotic journey, we witness…
Waterways (Part 1) For readers unfamiliar with Swahili and Sheng, see the glossary at the end. The matatu announced its arrival with a cacophony of hoots, but as Nairobians confess, this is always unnecessary. Even the deaf would be startled by the stentorian speakers long before the bus came into view. Okra acknowledged the distraction,…
Fulfilment or Survival? This is my take on the raging debate between two professionals from my alma mater. Consider the physician who also sells fish and vends vegetables. What does their condition tell us? What do these side hustles reveal? We know that they wanted to be doctors when they were younger. They may have…