East Africa’s biggest company Safaricom uses artificial intelligence to prevent 94% of attempted fraud in real time, its chief executive said on Wednesday, as the Kenyan government warned that the same technology was making cybercrime more sophisticated and exposing children to deepfakes, impersonation and online abuse.
The remarks by Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa and Information and Communications and Digital Economy Cabinet Secretary William Kabogo at the company’s cybersecurity summit in Nairobi highlighted the growing challenge for businesses and governments to harness AI while protecting financial transactions, critical infrastructure and vulnerable internet users.
“By using AI, you are able to actually prevent in real time, 94% of any fraud that is about to happen by classifying, by learning about customer behaviour, by learning patterns about where the risk is coming from,” Ndegwa said.
Artificial intelligence is increasingly being used both to detect suspicious transactions and to automate attacks against individuals and businesses, complicating efforts to secure Africa’s rapidly expanding digital economy.
AI was linked to 55% of reported cybercrimes across Africa, according to INTERPOL’s African Cyberthreat Assessment Report 2026, which drew on data from 36 African member countries. Cybercrime-related losses reported in the region rose to $484 million in 2025 from $192 million in 2024.
The World Economic Forum’s Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2026 found that 87% of surveyed organisations identified AI-related vulnerabilities as the fastest-growing cyber risk during 2025. The share of respondents whose organisations had processes to assess the security of AI tools rose to 64% in 2026 from 37% a year earlier.
For Safaricom, whose M-Pesa mobile money service processes about 150 million transactions a day, fraud prevention remains central to maintaining customer confidence in digital payments and financial services.
“Cybersecurity is no longer an IT matter,” Ndegwa said. “It is a leadership responsibility and it is increasingly a question of business growth because customers will only appoint what they trust today. Customer protection is not added at the end; it is designed into how we build.”
The company also provides managed security services to businesses, helping them monitor potential threats and respond to attacks, Ndegwa said.
But criminals can use generative AI to create convincing phishing messages, clone voices and fabricate videos that impersonate relatives, colleagues or other trusted individuals. Such tools can also be used to produce manipulated sexual images of children and facilitate online harassment.
“Today’s cybersecurity is no longer just about protecting networks and systems. It is also about protecting people, and this must start with protecting the most vulnerable demographic: our children,” Kabogo said.
He called for a national effort involving government agencies, schools, parents, telecommunications operators and technology companies to strengthen online safety as AI becomes more widely available.
“Deepfakes are also being used to create non-consensual images and to spread misinformation. This is not a distant problem; it is here with us in Kenya,” Kabogo said.
A study by UNICEF, ECPAT International and INTERPOL across 11 countries found that at least 1.2 million children reported having had their images manipulated into sexually explicit deepfakes in the preceding year, UNICEF said in February.
Kabogo also raised concerns about online gaming platforms and AI companions that could expose children to strangers, harmful content and manipulative interactions. He urged technology companies to provide accessible parental controls, clearer privacy settings and greater transparency about how algorithms affect young users.
“Let us be clear: our children are already growing up with artificial intelligence. We cannot hold it back. We must prepare them for it,” he said.
Safeguards
Kenya’s challenge is to reduce the risks associated with AI without undermining its potential to improve financial services, healthcare, education and public administration.
Ndegwa said telecommunications networks could use AI to anticipate demand during major events and shift capacity between locations before congestion disrupts calls, video streaming or mobile payments. But he noted that intelligent systems deployed in critical infrastructure required effective governance and human oversight.
“The danger is not technology, but technology without accountability,” Ndegwa said, echoing remarks he attributed to United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
Kabogo said Kenya should combine age-appropriate platform design, parental guidance, digital literacy, privacy protections and stronger accountability for technology companies rather than rely solely on blanket restrictions on children’s access to online services. “We need protection, not simply prohibition,” he said.
Kenya’s policy framework includes the Data Protection Act of 2019, the Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Act of 2018 and the Kenya AI Strategy 2025-2030. Kabogo also cited a draft AI and Emerging Technologies Policy and the proposed Artificial Intelligence Bill, 2026, which he said would establish a legal framework for AI and create the Office of the Kenya AI Commissioner.
He urged private companies to work with government agencies to improve authentication, detect and block cyber threats and share intelligence about emerging attacks. “Because the fight against cybercrime is a collective responsibility,” he said.
Ndegwa urged African countries to focus on applying AI to local challenges rather than competing solely to develop the largest models.
“The conversations should not be limited to where AI is created, especially in the West, where there’s a lot of war on who can create AI quickly, but rather how it is applied to solve real challenges that affect millions of lives every day,” he said.
He noted that Africa’s AI future will not be decided by economies with the biggest models or data centres, but by those who guarantee the most trust. “Let us build technology that Africa can rely on, because trust is what makes innovation last.”
Faustine Ngila is the AI Editor at Impact Newswire, based in Nairobi, Kenya. He is an award-winning journalist specializing in artificial intelligence, blockchain, and emerging technologies.
He previously worked as a global technology reporter at Quartz in New York and Digital Frontier in London, where he covered innovation, startups, and the global digital economy.
With years of experience reporting on cutting-edge technologies, Faustine focuses on AI developments, industry trends, and the impact of technology on society.
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