Flaws in Kenya's AI-driven health reforms driving up costs for the poorest

Source: The Guardian

Flaws in Kenya’s AI-driven health reforms driving up costs for the poorest

Exclusive: amid unrest, President William Ruto promised to give all Kenyans access to healthcare. But the algorithm favours the rich, an investigation has found

Purity Mukami, Joy Kirigia, Gabriel Geiger, Tomas Statius and Aisha Down
Mon 4 May 2026 07.00 BST
Last modified on Mon 4 May 2026 08.07 BST

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“No Kenyan will be left behind,” Ruto told a crowded stadium in Kericho during his 2023 presidential campaign, announcing that every citizen would soon have access to affordable healthcare.

But his solution has instead sparked protests and anger, as healthcare contributions for millions of people are now calculated via a formula described as “flawed” and which sources have said has almost no transparency.

That solution, which Ruto has described as AI-powered, does not rely on the recent advances in artificial intelligence which underpin large language models such as ChatGPT – instead it uses a predictive machine learning algorithm.

It now determines healthcare contributions for millions of people through a means-testing process.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2026/may/04/kenya-ai-healthcare-reforms-driving-up-costs-for-poor