Kenya wants $21 million to monitor social media

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Kenya’s government is asking parliament for KSh 2.7 billion ($21 million) to build an AI-powered system that can monitor what people are saying online. The proposal was presented yesterday, May 25, when the State Department for Broadcasting and Telecommunications appeared before the National Assembly’s ICT committee with a detailed budget request. The money would fund everything from AI-driven social media sentiment analysis software to a new National Communication Center, upgrades to Kenya News Agency offices, and day-to-day ministry operations. Officials say the plan is about fighting misinformation, disinformation, and what they’re now calling “malinformation.”

At the centre of the proposal is the planned National Communication Center, essentially a government command hub for coordinating messaging across ministries. Officials say it would help stop different departments from sending mixed signals and improve how the government communicates its work to the public. Alongside it would sit AI software designed to scan social media in real time, track public opinion, identify trending narratives, and flag content considered harmful or false. Critics say that’s where the red flags start. While the government frames the tools as necessary for information management, the same technology could easily be used for political surveillance depending on who controls it and how it’s regulated.

The timing of the proposal is hard to ignore. Just last week, Kenya gave X a 90-day ultimatum to open a local office. Earlier this month, the proposed Statistics Bill 2026 sought broader government data collection powers, while the Finance Bill 2026 introduced measures around crypto wallet disclosure and mandatory platform reporting. Taken together, the moves suggest the government is steadily building a much larger digital oversight system, one that stretches from social media monitoring to financial data and online platforms. Earlier this year, the government also set aside KSh 100 million to pay online influencers to promote official messaging.

Much of this traces back to the 2024 Finance Bill protests, when young Kenyans used X and TikTok to livestream demonstrations and police actions, helping force the government into a major policy reversal. After courts later ruled the government could not block social media platforms, officials appear to have shifted strategy. Instead of shutting platforms down, the focus now seems to be on monitoring conversations, tracking narratives, and responding to them in real time. Kenya has tried versions of this before, from the failed 2019 Social Media Bill to controversial cybercrime regulations proposed in 2024, but this latest push is by far the most technologically ambitious.

Kenya isn’t alone in this trend. Governments across Africa and beyond are increasingly investing in AI-powered monitoring systems to track digital conversations and public sentiment. What makes Kenya different is that it also has one of the continent’s strongest digital rights communities, active courts, and a vocal online population that has repeatedly challenged state power online. That tension is likely to define the debate ahead. Parliament’s Budget and Appropriations Committee will decide whether the money gets approved, but civil society groups are already preparing for what could become Kenya’s biggest digital rights fight since the 2024 protests.

Airtel Nigeria and Globacom have switched their airtime borrowing services back on after weeks of disruption that left millions of Nigerians without emergency call credit. Airtel Advance and Glo’s “Borrow Me Credit” resumed on May 25, 2026, days after the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) announced it was temporarily suspending enforcement of its controversial digital lending regulations. The decision followed an interim order issued by the Federal High Court in Lagos on April 15, stopping the FCCPC from enforcing the rules after a lawsuit filed by the Wireless Application Service Providers Association of Nigeria (WASPAN). MTN’s XtraTime service, however, was still not fully confirmed as restored at the time of reporting.

What’s happening now is essentially a regulatory tug-of-war between two government agencies. The FCCPC believes airtime borrowing should fall under its digital lending rules, while telecom operators and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) argue that airtime credit is a telecom value-added service, not a traditional loan product. WASPAN chairman Ayo Stuffman said the lending rules were never designed for airtime advances in the first place, insisting they target abusive loan apps rather than telecom services. Even the NCC’s executive vice chairman, Aminu Maida, publicly backed that position. But the FCCPC is not backing down quietly. In its May 22 notice, the commission made it clear it plans to challenge the court order and continue fighting for jurisdiction over the sector.

The crisis actually started back in July 2025 when the FCCPC introduced its Digital, Electronic, Online or Non-Traditional Consumer Lending Regulations, known as the DEON rules. The regulations were aimed at cleaning up Nigeria’s notoriously aggressive loan app industry after years of complaints about harassment, debt shaming, and privacy abuses. Operators were first given 90 days to comply, then extensions into January and later April 2026. Things escalated quickly in April when WASPAN sued the FCCPC in Lagos, leading to a court injunction on April 15. Ironically, MTN suspended XtraTime just one day later despite the court order pausing enforcement. A second court in Abuja later ruled that MTN’s suspension itself amounted to unlawful interference with another operator’s licence, creating even more legal confusion.

For now, Airtel and Glo users can borrow airtime again, but the broader fight is far from over. The FCCPC still wants the courts to overturn the injunction, while telecom operators are pushing for a clearer agreement between the FCCPC and NCC on who actually regulates airtime credit products. Without that clarity, the industry risks repeating the same cycle every time a telecom service overlaps with financial products: regulators clash, courts intervene, services disappear, and millions of users get caught in the middle. MTN’s delayed return is already a reminder that the market still hasn’t fully stabilised.