Derrick Gakuu, founder of Siscom Technologies, has appealed to the Kenyan government to allocate a portion of the newly established KSh 5 trillion National Infrastructure Fund (NIF) towards digital and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure.

Speaking to TUKO.co.ke, Gakuu warned that focusing the NIF solely on traditional infrastructure like roads, railways, and ports risks leaving Kenya behind in the global AI race. He highlighted that digital infrastructure — including data centres, fibre networks, and computing capacity — is now as critical to economic development as electricity and water.

Challenges Facing Kenya's AI Infrastructure

Kenya’s flagship AI data centre project, a 100MW facility planned by Microsoft and G42 at Olkaria Geothermal, has stalled due to power supply constraints. Operating the centre at scale would require diverting nearly half of the country’s electricity, underscoring the urgent need for dedicated energy solutions.

Currently, Africa’s total data centre capacity is around 1.2 gigawatts, with just 360MW operational, a figure far below what is available in a single large US hyperscale campus. Additionally, efforts to deploy GPUs across Kenya and other African countries have so far seen limited progress, with initial units operating in South Africa instead.

Recommended Investment Priorities

Drawing on a framework inspired by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Gakuu outlined five key areas for investment:

  • Power: Expand geothermal energy capacity dedicated to data centres to resolve power bottlenecks.
  • Chips: Promote local GPU manufacturing through incentives and partnerships, including import duty relief and co-investment in national cloud computing facilities.
  • Physical Infrastructure: Develop modular, prefabricated data centres tailored to Kenya’s dispersed economic regions.
  • AI Models: Invest in sovereign AI capacity, leveraging Kenya’s strategic advantage as a Swahili-speaking hub for East and Central Africa.
  • AI Ecosystem: Build a foundation that enables startups, researchers, and companies to create AI solutions tailored to African markets.

Building on Kenya’s Leapfrogging Legacy

Gakuu cited M-Pesa as a successful example of infrastructure-led innovation, where Kenya bypassed traditional banking infrastructure to create a transformative mobile payment system. He believes digital and AI infrastructure investments offer a similar opportunity to drive economic growth and technological leadership.

With initial funds from the Kenya Pipeline Company stake sale already secured and further capital expected from the planned Safaricom stake reduction, Gakuu emphasized that the NIF is well-positioned to prioritize digital infrastructure projects that will future-proof Kenya’s economy.