GOVERNMENT
Kenya's Digital Cooperation Organization membership gets the green light
Days after Kenya lodged its application, the DCO Council meeting in Riyadh on 28 August approved the country's membership alongside Albania, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria and Zambia — taking the bloc to 24 states representing some 980 million people once ratification completes. Special Envoy on Technology Amb. Philip Thigo led the push; Nairobi is eyeing DCO programmes like STRIDE and InvestConnect, which have helped member-state startups raise over $21 million.
Techweez
POLICY
KRA plugs eTIMS into IFMIS to vet every government supplier invoice
The Kenya Revenue Authority has completed an integration linking its electronic tax invoice system, eTIMS, with the Treasury's IFMIS payment platform, so supplier invoices are now validated against tax records before the government pays them. Suppliers must issue valid eTIMS invoices that match their submissions exactly and keep their tax status current — discrepancies that once got sorted out later now block payment on the spot. KRA and Treasury promise sensitisation and technical support through the transition.
Techweez
AI
WHO switches on an AI-assisted health data hub for all 47 African member states
The WHO Regional Office for Africa launched a regional health data hub that pulls fragmented national health data into interactive dashboards, maps and AI-enabled forecasting across maternal and child health, infectious and noncommunicable disease, and health systems. Regional Director Dr. Mohamed Yakub Janabi's framing: "No health decision in our region should be taken in the dark" — a resource Kenya's health ministry, researchers and health-tech builders can query alongside 46 other member states.
The Kenyan Wall Street
STARTUPS
Nigeria's UfarmX picks Kenya for its East Africa debut
Blockchain agri-tech platform UfarmX — which has facilitated over $6.8 million in agricultural commerce for 17,000-plus credit-scored smallholder farmers, with a 1.17% net default rate on collateral-free input lending — plans to launch in Kenya in Q4 2026. It is already courting Kenyan banks, DFIs and insurers for early access to a credit-scoring API due by year-end that would let lenders underwrite farm loans the way US lenders lean on Equifax or Experian.
Disrupt Africa
STARTUPS
AfyaApp launches to stitch Kenyan patients and providers together
E-health platform AfyaApp, a project of the African-built mobile operating system Jamhuri OS launched in April, is now live — letting users manage their health information and connect with providers, after a pilot with Smart Health Care Clinic in Maai Mahiu. Co-founder Ernest Mungai says the bootstrapped team has passed 500 downloads with little marketing, and is chasing provider and government partnerships in Kenya before a regional push.
Disrupt Africa
