Creative economy
Kenya, China and AI in film: what the co-operation could mean for Riverwood
Chrisphine Otieno · 19 Oct 2026 · 2 min read
In July 2026, Kenya and China pledged to deepen co-operation in film through artificial intelligence, emerging technologies and co-productions, People Daily reported. The announcement joins a series of Chinese partnerships in Kenya's media and technology sectors, and it arrives as AI tools are changing how films, series and adverts are made everywhere.
For Kenyan film-makers, from the scrappy, fast-moving producers of Riverwood to the directors whose work travels to international festivals, the pledge raises hopeful and hard questions at once.
The possible upside
- Skills: training in AI-assisted production, visual effects, animation and post-production
- Equipment and infrastructure: studios, render capacity, archives
- Co-productions: access to financing and distribution in a huge market
- Speed: AI can shorten pre-production, storyboarding, effects and localisation
Kenya has talented storytellers and a young audience hungry for local content. Better tools and more finance could help that talent reach further.
The questions worth asking
- Who owns the stories? Co-productions should leave Kenyan creators with real ownership and credit, not just service roles.
- Who owns the data? AI tools learn from material. Kenyan films, voices and faces used in training should be used with consent and fair terms.
- Whose aesthetic? Kenyan stories should look and sound Kenyan, not like a template from elsewhere.
- Who gains the skills? Training should build local capacity that stays after a project ends.
- What about jobs? AI can replace some production roles; policy should help crews move into new ones.
These questions apply to any partner, Chinese, American, European or African. They are about how Kenya's creative economy grows, not about one country.
AI tools are already here
Kenyan creators do not need to wait for an intergovernmental programme to use AI. Many already use AI for storyboards, scripts, concept art, trailers and social content. Tari Studio is one such tool: you can write a timed script with /script, then make short videos with the AK1 and AK2 models, which were tuned so African scenes, people, languages and accents come out right. AK1 and AK2.
For film-makers, tools like this are most useful at the edges of production: pitching concepts to funders, previsualising scenes, making trailers and social clips for distribution.
Telling our own stories
The deeper opportunity is for Kenyan and African creators to shape AI, not just use it, so that the tools understand our languages, faces, places and humour. That requires local data shared on fair terms, local researchers and local businesses building with these tools.
Whatever form the Kenya-China co-operation takes, its success should be measured by one thing: whether more Kenyan stories, told by Kenyans, reach more people.