By Irũngũ Houghton

Spending time among Mulot digital leaders in Bomet and African policy makers in Johannesburg days apart, has finally piqued my curiosity.

The public debate that generated last week’s  column on WorldCoin continued this week with two significant new developments.

Nairobi, Kenya 11th August 2023

Last week, there were reports that over 350,000 Kenyans had enrolled on Worldcoin, a cryptocurrency company collecting iris data.

On Wednesday, over 1000 tech industry leaders signed an open letter urging Artificial Intelligence (AI) labs to stop developing advanced forms of AI. To many, this does not come as a surprise as one of the most prolific geniuses of the last century, theoretical physicist, Stephen Hawkins warned that AI could eventually end the human race if it was ever developed to extent in which it would take off on its own and redesign itself in an ever-increasing rate.

The digital age has brought forth immense opportunities for the empowerment of women and girls in Kenya, from online learning to digital activism and high-paying tech jobs. However, technology is also introducing new forms of inequality and threats to their rights and well-being. Women and girls are underrepresented across the creation, use and regulation of technology, limiting their digital empowerment and the transformative potential of technology. 

With 3.6 billion monthly users by 2022, social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp (all owned by Meta), Twitter, Tik Tok, YouTube, WeChat, and Snapchat will continue to grow. In the last 15 years, they have revolutionised how people interact, communicate, and share information and news.

Instagram, TikTok and other social media have become daily fixtures in the lives of children and young people around the world, with 59% of young people surveyed by Amnesty International now spending more than two hours of their average day on social media. Yet research on young people’s experiences on social media remains overwhelmingly focused on North America, Europe and Australia.

06th February, 2023

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Kenya ranks high in Africa in digital technology, digital infrastructure and the use of emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning.