Kenya backs a Cybersecurity Agency as AI fraud rises
With Parliament clearing a new National Cybersecurity Agency, the government is sharpening its defences against AI-generated deepfakes and fraud aimed at the digital economy.
Kenya is moving to strengthen its digital defences as AI-powered threats grow, with the government backing the creation of a new National Cybersecurity Agency.
The plans were set out by Internal Security and National Administration Principal Secretary Raymond Omollo at the sixth annual Information Security Management Systems conference in Naivasha, held on July 1 and organised by the National Computer and Cybercrimes Coordination Committee and the Kenya Bureau of Standards.
Omollo welcomed Parliament's approval of the agency, saying it will improve national coordination, strengthen resilience, and sharpen Kenya's preparedness against evolving cyber threats.
His warning was pointed: as technology advances, the country is seeing AI-generated deepfakes, sophisticated misinformation campaigns, online fraud, and identity manipulation that threaten public trust and national security.
The stakes are clearest in how much of Kenyan life now runs online. Omollo pointed to the eCitizen platform, which now hosts more than 24,000 government services, serves over 15 million users, and processes about 500,000 transactions a day.
National security is no longer just about physical infrastructure. It now means protecting cloud systems, payment platforms, telecoms networks, and critical information that citizens depend on daily.
Existing measures already include the Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Act and the 2024 critical infrastructure regulations, but the new agency is meant to give Kenya a more coordinated national response.
Omollo also pressed for Kenya to build and export its own cybersecurity solutions rather than only importing them.
The direction is sensible, because a coordinating agency is exactly what a fast-digitising country needs as its attack surface widens.
The real work is in the doing: staffing the agency, funding it, and turning conference commitments into protection that ordinary Kenyans feel when they log in to a government service or face a convincing AI-made scam.
FAQ
What is Kenya's National Cybersecurity Agency?
It is a newly approved body meant to coordinate the country's cyber defences, strengthen resilience, and improve preparedness against cyber threats.
Why is Kenya creating it now?
Because AI-generated deepfakes, online fraud, misinformation, and attacks on digital platforms like eCitizen are rising as more of government and daily life moves online.
Sources
The agency will be judged by whether it makes digital public services safer, not by how serious the launch language sounds.
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