As part of its annual research engagement forum, the Kenya Education Network (KENET) launched its expanded GPU cluster at a Nairobi hotel on March 6, 2026. The new cluster, partially supported by the European Union through the AfricaConnect3 project implemented by UbuntuNet Alliance and GEANT, consists of four servers, each with 2 NVIDIA A30 GPU cards, 1.5 TB of storage, 380 GB of RAM, and 96 virtual CPUs, at a cost of $1 million.
The guest of honour at the launch was Kenya’s Principal Secretary in the State Department for Science, Research and Innovation, Office of the Prime Cabinet Secretary, Prof. Shaukat Abdulrazak. In his keynote address, Prof. Abdulrazak noted that, “Today’s milestone represents far more than a technology upgrade. It reflects Kenya’s deliberate strategy to anchor national transformation of science, research and innovation. It signals a shift from aspiration to infrastructure, and from infrastructure to sovereignty.”
Prof. Madara Ogot, the CEO of the Alliance, in his presentation, walked participants through roles they should play in implementing Kenya’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) Strategy 2025-2030, launched in 2025. Ogot emphasised that Kenya’s AI Strategy requires a clear, evidence-based implementation pathway, that can be achieved by reframing the Strategy through the Hierarchy of Engagement with AI model. The model’s sequenced logic and delineation of actor roles, aligned with the Strategy, support its implementation. His presentation was based on the policy brief titled ‘Realising Kenya’s AI Strategy.’
Central to achieving the strategy’s objectives is bringing online the necessary computing and data infrastructure to strengthen Kenya’s sovereignty in the AI era. Echoing this need, Prof Meoli Kashorda, the CEO of KENET, emphasised in his remarks that the expanded GPU cluster represented an initial step towards realising this sovereignty by providing the research infrastructure needed to support research collaboration.
