Safaricom convened leaders from across Kenya’s digital ecosystem at the fourth Safaricom Cybersecurity Summit to advance responsible AI adoption and strengthen the country’s cyber resilience.
Held under the theme “Harnessing AI, Strengthening Security,” the summit explored AI’s dual role as both a powerful defense tool and an enabler of increasingly sophisticated threats, including deepfakes, AI-generated impersonation, automated scams and ransomware.
The summit comes as Kenya’s cyber threat exposure continues to grow. According to the Communications Authority of Kenya, the National Kenya Computer Incident Response Team – Coordination Centre detected 11.12 billion cyber threat events in the last financial year, up 29 per cent from 8.62 billion the previous year—underscoring the need for continuous monitoring, stronger controls and coordinated incident response.
Safaricom Group CEO Peter Ndegwa said AI’s opportunities must be matched by stronger safeguards and trust built into digital services from the outset.
“AI is expanding what is possible for businesses and society, but that opportunity must be built on trust,” said Ndegwa. “Cybersecurity can no longer be treated as a technical safeguard added after a service is developed. It must be embedded from the start and strengthened through shared standards, responsible innovation and collaboration across sectors. That is how we ensure digital progress remains safe, inclusive and worthy of our customers’ confidence.”
Through expert discussions, live demonstrations and practical scenarios, participants examined how organisations can apply AI-enabled threat detection, strengthen incident response, prepare for ransomware and address the cybersecurity skills gap.
The sessions underscored that resilience depends not only on technology, but also on tested processes, clear accountability and a security-aware culture able to recognise unusual activity, verify high-risk requests and respond decisively.
As Kenya accelerates its digital transformation and adoption of emerging technologies, Safaricom reaffirmed its commitment to secure digital infrastructure and stronger cyber resilience, particularly for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), which account for about 70 per cent of the country’s GDP.
By helping MSMEs protect their operations, customer data and digital transactions, Safaricom is enabling them to adopt technology with confidence, remain competitive and recover more quickly from cyber incidents.
Safaricom supports this through its Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN), which provides secure, reliable and centrally managed connectivity across multiple business locations, and its Managed Security Operations Centre (MSOC), which delivers continuous threat monitoring, expert analysis and coordinated incident responses.
Together, these solutions give MSMEs access to enterprise-grade security without requiring them to build and manage complex cybersecurity capabilities in-house.
Now in its fourth year, the Safaricom Cybersecurity Summit has become a leading platform for industry dialogue, knowledge sharing and collaboration in Kenya. This year’s edition reinforced the need to match the promise of artificial intelligence with robust governance, security and trust as the digital economy evolves.
