Anthropic disrupted a Kenyan political influence operation that used its Claude artificial intelligence model to generate pro-government content and attack opposition figures ahead of the country’s 2027 general election.
The company says in its latest report the operation was part of a broader set of attempts to misuse Claude for cyberattacks, surveillance, influence operations, biological research and weapons development.
Anthropic said it identified and removed an account operated by what it described as a single domestic actor. The account generated large volumes of political content designed to appear as genuine grassroots commentary rather than coordinated propaganda.
“We identified and removed an account that was used by a single actor to mass-produce Kenyan political content. The operation was built to look like spontaneous, grassroots public sentiment,” Anthropic said.
“The actor used Claude across several sessions to generate batches of exactly 50 tweets, explicitly instructing the model to make posts look like spontaneous grassroots commentary rather than a coordinated campaign.”
Anthropic said the operator supplied Claude with political topics, talking points and hashtags and used the model to produce content that could be distributed across social media platforms.
The campaign focused on Kenyan political issues, including government policy and prominent political figures, the company said.
A significant portion of the content praised Energy Cabinet Secretary Opiyo Wandayi over his decision to halt a scheduled Kenya Power electricity tariff review, using the hashtags #PowerReliefKE and #PoweringTheNewKenya.
“The network focused its messaging on key Kenyan political issues and figures. A large portion of the AI-generated tweets praised Energy Cabinet Secretary Opiyo Wandayi for stopping a scheduled Kenya Power electricity tariff hike, using the hashtags #PowerReliefKE and #PoweringTheNewKenya to boost visibility,” Anthropic said.
The campaign also promoted claims that Kenya’s United Opposition coalition was fracturing before the 2027 election and targeted former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua and former President Uhuru Kenyatta, according to Anthropic.
“Additionally, the network pushed stories claiming that Kenya’s United Opposition coalition was breaking apart before the 2027 General Election, directly targeting politicians Rigathi Gachagua and former President Uhuru Kenyatta,” Anthropic said.
Anthropic said investigators found that the operator used the same AI workflow in commercial marketing campaigns for Kenyan retail companies under the online identities “SHANKI” and “Elkins Marketer”.
The company said it had not established the identity of the operator or found evidence that the Kenyan government was directly involved.
“While we do not know the exact real-world identity of the people behind this operation, we believe this was a local Kenyan political astroturfing campaign. The network’s pro-administration tone and specific hashtags suggest it was plausibly aligned with the ruling coalition, though we have not identified the exact organisation responsible,” the report said.
Anthropic said the investigation began after OpenAI provided a tip about repeat activity on its platform.
“Based on a tip shared by OpenAI about recidivist activity on their platform, we conducted an internal investigation into suspected coordinated inauthentic behaviour in Kenya and identified this operation. We removed the account and the organisation behind it, and built detections around its behavioural signature,” it said.
Anthropic classified the operation as Category One on its Breakout Scale, saying the synthetic material remained within a network of fake accounts and local influencers on a single platform and did not reach or influence genuine voters.
The disclosure comes as Kenya prepares for the 2027 election, when President William Ruto is expected to seek a second term amid an increasingly competitive political environment.
The use of generative AI in political campaigning has raised concerns globally about the ability of political actors to manufacture apparent public support at low cost and large scale.
Anthropic has said Claude cannot be used to run deceptive political campaigns, create fake digital content intended to influence political discourse, commit voter fraud or spread misleading information about voting processes. The company says it uses automated classifiers and a dedicated threat-intelligence team to enforce those restrictions.
The Kenyan case forms part of a broader Anthropic report detailing attempts to misuse Claude for political influence, cyber operations, surveillance, biological research and weapons-related activity.
Mohd Hassan has extensive experience in news gathering, editing, and writing for the newswire industry, Contact – Info@impactnews-wire.com
Jacques Pauw (South Africa)
Most Impactful Work: The President’s Keepers: Those Keeping Zuma in Power and out of Prison (book) and his work for Vrye Weekblad and Special Assignment (SABC).
Short Bio: A veteran South African investigative journalist, Pauw has a long history of exposing government corruption and atrocities, particularly during and after the apartheid era. His book, “The President’s Keepers,” caused a national sensation by detailing allegations of corruption and state capture under former President Jacob Zuma.
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