Rachel A. George / Oct 26, 2026A street view of The Nairobi Hospital in Kenya on Oct. 6, 2026 (AP Photo/Andrew Kasuku)On October 9, Kenya’s Court of Appeal cleared the way, for now, for the government to implement a five-year, approximately $2.5 billion health cooperation framework with the United States, including up to $1.6 billion in US support. The agreement provides for the sharing of aggregated health data and US access to Kenyan health information systems. A legal challenge to the framework, including its data-access provisions, is scheduled for a further hearing on October 30.Kenya’s deal reflects a broader shift: access to data, digital infrastructure, and technology is becoming part of the bargain between wealthy donors and poorer recipient countries. As traditional aid budgets shrink, AI offers public institutions a way to do more with less, and health is an obvious place to start. Sub-Saharan Africa faces a shortage of nearly 6 million health workers, and Rwanda has one health care worker per 1,000 patients, less than a quarter of the threshold at which the World Health Organization defines a shortage. Tools that help clinicians triage, diagnose, and keep records could help close that gap.Donors are already investing. In January, the Gates Foundation and OpenAI announced Horizon1000, committing $50 million in funding, technology, and technical support to bring AI tools to 1,000 primary health clinics in Africa by 2028, beginning in Rwanda.Commitments like this…

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