Election season and AI: a code of conduct for Kenyan brands before 2027

Kenya's next general election is scheduled for 10 August 2027. On 7 October 2026, IEBC Commissioner Francis Odhiambo ranked the misuse of artificial intelligence third among the threats to the poll, after political goonism and gangsterism, raising concern about AI being used to manipulate images and generate misleading material on social media, Citizen Digital reported. The commission's election operations plan lists AI-driven misinformation and deepfakes as emerging risks to public confidence, according to The Star.

The Media Council of Kenya's Guidelines for Election Coverage 2027 ask media houses to detect, investigate and correct deepfakes and synthetic media and to keep meaningful human oversight of AI content. Amnesty Kenya has also written about AI-enabled influence operations, drawing on a September report by the AI company Anthropic that described an operator generating batches of fake grassroots posts.

Most of the attention falls on politicians, parties and media. But businesses, agencies and creators who use AI every day are part of the information environment too. The time to set rules is before the campaign, not in the middle of it.

A code of conduct for the election period

1. No real politicians, ever, without consent. Do not generate, imitate or alter the face, voice or likeness of any candidate, official or public figure. Not as satire, not as a joke, not "just for engagement".

2. No fake events. Do not create images or video of rallies, protests, violence, ballot boxes, tallying centres or anything that could be mistaken for real election news.

3. Label synthetic content. If an ad shows generated people or scenes, and anyone could reasonably think it was real, say so. When to label AI content.

4. Check before you share. Do not forward election claims, images or clips you cannot verify, including on your business WhatsApp groups.

5. Separate business from politics. If your brand takes no political side, keep it that way in content, captions and replies. If staff have political views, they should express them as individuals.

6. Respect the rules on political advertising. If you are an agency running political work, know the law, the IEBC's rules and the platforms' policies on political ads and disclosure.

7. Have a plan for being impersonated. Brands can be dragged in: fake endorsements, fake statements, fake offers. Decide who on your team will respond, and how.

How Tari Studio approaches this

Tari Studio asks every user to include only people who agreed to appear and never to imitate a real person without permission. Every result keeps the Prompt we sent, so it is always possible to show what a model was asked to make. Privacy and your data.

AI can help Kenyan businesses grow through an election year: ads for products, explainers, offers. It should never be used to deceive voters. That is a line every business can hold.