I was quoted this week in a New York Times article about the rapid uptake of Chinese open-weight AI models across Africa which you can read here: nytimes.com/2026/08/05/techn… Over the last two months, I had several calls and WhatsApp conversations with co-writer Adam Satariano about what these models could mean for AI in Kenya and the rest of Africa. The comparison I gave him was simple: “Why use an expensive Ferrari to do the school run when a Toyota hatchback can do the same?” For most African businesses, the question is not which model leads every benchmark. It is which one provides the required capability at a cost that can scale. The Kenyan examples in the article make this real: ✅Michael Michie’s EverseTech builds AI systems for banks and government agencies, using Chinese open-weight models where affordability matters. ✅ Shikoh Gitau of Qhala points to the control that comes from being able to download and run a model rather than depending entirely on a hosted service. ✅ Kamal Budhabhatti of Craft Silicon used Claude Code to help 10 people complete in half the time a project that previously required 100 engineers—showing why frontier AI can justify its cost. ✅ Bernard Momanyi Nyagaka’s Sanifu uses OpenAI while also attracting interest from Chinese providers. ✅ Principal Secretary John Tanui argues that Kenya should not choose between East and West, but take what works from both. Kenya does not need model loyalty. It needs model optionality: proprietary frontier AI where performance and security justify the price; open-weight models where affordability, localization and control matter; and Kenyan models where our languages, data and context require them. This matters because Kenya is already a major AI market. Omdia estimates that ChatGPT reaches 22.9% of Kenya’s active smartphone base—almost 7.5 million monthly users. Meanwhile, China is building what increasingly looks like an AI Belt and Road Initiative through models, cloud infrastructure, devices, developer incentives and international partnerships. Kimi K3 from Moonshot AI shows how quickly Chinese open-weight models are approaching the frontier despite US chip restrictions. Kenya’s National AI Strategy, the Artificial Intelligence Bill 2026 and the new Draft AI and Emerging Technologies Policy must now turn this momentum into affordable infrastructure, local capability, clear governance and strategic autonomy. The question is no longer whether Chinese AI will play a role in Africa. It is whether Africa will use the competition between China and the United States to build AI ecosystems on its own terms. Read my blog post with the full analysis on the New York Times article here: moseskemibaro.com/2026/08/09… #ArtificialIntelligence #Kenya #Africa #China #OpenWeightAI #DigitalTransformation – at Nairobi, Kenya