Kenya has signed a cooperation agreement with U.S. artificial intelligence company Anthropic covering AI skills, research, public-sector applications and safety as the East African country seeks to build local capacity in the rapidly developing technology.

The Joint Declaration was signed in New York on Sept. 22 on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, according to Kenyan government officials and reports on the agreement.

The partnership will bring together Kenyan institutions and Anthropic to develop and test AI applications, strengthen technical skills and research capacity, and assess the safety and performance of advanced AI systems.

The cooperation will also explore applications in education and healthcare, while allowing the two sides to develop projects tailored to Kenya’s national priorities and legal framework.

The agreement comes as Kenya seeks to move beyond adopting AI products developed elsewhere and build domestic expertise in developing, evaluating and governing the technology.

Kenya’s AI Strategy 2025-2030 identifies AI infrastructure, data, research and innovation, skills and governance as key areas for developing the country’s AI ecosystem.

Under the agreement, projects will be developed with Kenyan institutions, with the aim of building local technical capacity before successful applications are expanded, according to officials familiar with the partnership.

Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Korir Sing’Oei and Anthropic’s Elizabeth Kelly were among officials involved in concluding the agreement.

The partnership also comes as governments and technology companies face growing pressure to establish safeguards around increasingly capable AI systems.

Anthropic, which develops the Claude family of AI models, has made AI safety a central part of its business and research agenda. The company said this month it had disrupted several operations in which its AI tools were used for malicious activities, including influence operations and cyber-related activity.

One of the cases identified by Anthropic involved a Kenyan operation that used Claude to generate large volumes of political content designed to appear as grassroots social media activity ahead of the country’s 2027 general election. Anthropic said it removed the accounts and organization associated with the activity.

The Kenya partnership therefore comes at a time when the country is simultaneously expanding the use of AI and confronting questions over how the technology should be governed.

The agreement does not involve an investment or acquisition, but establishes a framework for cooperation between Anthropic and Kenyan institutions.

For Kenya, the focus will be on building skills and research capacity, testing practical applications and strengthening its ability to evaluate and govern advanced AI technologies. The partnership adds Anthropic to Kenya’s growing network of international technology partners as Nairobi positions AI as part of its wider digital transformation agenda.