As the curtain falls on the inaugural Africa Artificial Intelligence conference in Mombasa, the Kenya is racing against time to establish robust Artificial Intelligence (AI) policy, strategies, standards, guidelines and data protection to ensure ethical integration of AI agents in health to protect the lives of Kenyans.

Principal Secretary of ICT, E-Government and Digital Economy in the Ministry of Information, Communication, and Digital Economy Mary Kerema, said on the sidelines of the Africa Premier AI Conference (APAIC2025) in Mombasa that the agents will not be used in isolation, but will undergo strict oversight to safeguard Kenyans.

She called for the customisation of all foreign AI solutions being promoted to fit the country’s needs while considering culture and beliefs, “so that we are not injuring the human aspect at the expense of using machines.”

She disclosed that an AI strategy has been launched while an AI policy is being developed and will be ready before the end of the current financial year.

“We have developed the AI principles. We are going to engage the stakeholders to validate the principles together with the policy. We are also developing the digital public infrastructure framework to bring coherence in the way we are deploying systems and solutions in our country,” stated the ICT Secretary.

She further lauded innovators and techpreneurs for developing Agentic Artificial General Intelligence in health. The government, she said, is committed to developing regulatory frameworks, standards and guidelines to ensure quality and safeguard patients.

“This is about life, you make a mistake, and the person is no more. As a government, we are not going to rely solely on AI systems for treating patients. We will ensure there is the human part, where the human doctor will be able to deduce a correct diagnosis,” said Kerema.

She went on, “If you just give an AI agent to prescribe, diagnose and even propose what kind of medication, then we are bound to really mess up our citizens.”

MindHYVE.ai, a global pioneer in adaptive intelligence and AGI agents, has developed an AI health agent. The company’s mission is to empower nations to build AI systems that reflect their values, accelerate innovation, and ensure sustainable growth.

The company showcased the new agentic AI system for clinical intelligence called Chiron AI. The autonomous clinical decision support system is designed to be used by a licensed medical practitioner to assist in consultation, recommend additional diagnoses to determine the condition of the patient, to inform the treatment plan.

“The clinical intelligence platform is designed to be used by physicians. It has been brought to life by an agentic system in a simple dashboard that Doctors can use anywhere. It lowers the cost of healthcare and improves outcomes for professionals in health,” explained Bill Faruki, Founder and CEO of MindHYVE.ai and DV8 Infosystems.

• A Tell Media / KNA report / By Sadik Hassan