Ruto urges world to centre the United Nations in AI governance

By  Lynette Mukami

Digital Editor

Nation Media Group

What you need to know:

• President Ruto said AI governance "must be globally shaped, not globally imposed," and that those affected by the technology must have a meaningful hand in shaping the rules that govern it.
• In July this year, Kenya launched a nationwide public participation exercise on its draft AI policy. 

President William Ruto has called on the international community to keep the United Nations at the centre of global efforts to govern artificial intelligence, warning that the rules shaping the "intelligence era" cannot be left to a handful of governments, companies or laboratories.

Speaking on Monday during a high-level event on the margins of the 81st session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA 81) in New York, President Ruto said AI governance "must be globally shaped, not globally imposed," and that those affected by the technology must have a meaningful hand in shaping the rules that govern it.

"The rules of the intelligence era cannot be written by a handful of governments, companies, or laboratories. Those affected by these technologies must have a meaningful hand in shaping them," he said.

The remarks came as Dr Ruto used the event, themed "Shared Sovereignty in the AI Era," to formally advance a new coalition he is co-founding with Finnish President Alexander Stubb — the AI Middle Powers (AIM) Initiative — described as a voluntary framework to help so-called middle power nations pool resources on artificial intelligence rather than each trying to build full AI capability alone.

"Today, therefore, we advance the AI Middle Powers Initiative as a voluntary and practical framework for turning shared sovereignty into shared capability," he said.

Dr Ruto argued that while every country represented at the event was politically sovereign, few controlled the underlying technologies through which that sovereignty would increasingly be exercised.

"Our territory, our laws and our institutions remain ours. Yet more of the decisions shaping our economies, security and societies will depend on computing power we do not own, models we did not train, chips we cannot readily obtain, data systems we may not control, and standards we did not help write," he said.

He noted that no single nation should realistically dominate the entire AI value chain — from securing critical minerals to fabricating advanced chips, building data centres, training frontier models and setting global standards — making cooperation necessary.

Turning to Africa specifically, the president warned against the continent repeating the pattern of past extractive economies in digital form, supplying the raw inputs of the AI revolution only to import the resulting technology at a premium.

"Africa cannot provide the minerals, energy, data, content, and talent of the AI revolution, only to import the resulting intelligence at a premium," he said, calling instead for the continent to move "from consumption to creation; from mine to model; from adoption to ownership; and from being a subject of global rules to being a co-author of them."

Kenya's AI policy 

In July this year, Kenya launched a nationwide public participation exercise on its draft AI policy. 

It was opened up to ordinary Kenyans, tech firms, researchers, academia and civil society as the government seeks help in shaping the country's AI future.

The draft policy touches on how AI can be monetised, as well as planned use in key sectors such as health, agriculture, education, financial services and more. 

In New York, President Ruto told world leader that Kenya's AI strategy is built around key pillars: digital infrastructure; data and AI governance; and research, innovation and commercialisation. 

However, he cautioned, expanding AI capability would come with some threats. 

"Innovation without safeguards is not sustainable progress," he said. 

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