By James Murimi - Reporter
Kenya, May 04, 2026 - Nearly two-thirds of Kenyans cannot identify AI-generated content, even as a majority are aware that artificial intelligence is already shaping the media landscape, a new State of the Media 2025 report reveals.
The findings, released during World Press Freedom Day by Media Council of Kenya (MCK) Chief Executive Officer and Secretary to the Council David Omwayo, warn of a growing gap between awareness and detection that threatens the integrity of public information.
While 59 percent of Kenyans know that AI is being used in media, most lack the ability to distinguish machine-generated content from human-produced journalism.
“This growing gap between awareness and detection capability presents a significant risk to public information integrity,” the report states, underscoring the urgent need for media literacy initiatives.
At the same time, the report points to a notable shift in how Kenyans perceive media coverage of the government.
The proportion of those who view coverage as unfair dropped sharply from 73.6 percent in 2024 to 46 percent in 2025, a 27-point swing.
The improvement signals a rebound in credibility for the press, which is increasingly being viewed as more balanced in its reporting.
Public trust in the media has also risen, with 79 percent of Kenyans expressing “some” or “a lot” of confidence in the press, up from 74.5 percent last year.
The report notes that this trend is “positioning media among the most relied upon institutions in the country as a source of information of integrity.”
Even as trust improves, Kenya’s media consumption habits are undergoing a profound transformation.
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Social media has now overtaken television as the leading source of news, with 39 percent of Kenyans relying on digital platforms for information.
Omwayo described the shift as “The Great Crossover,” noting that “digital consumption is no longer growing alongside broadcast, it is growing at its expense.”
Television viewership continues to decline, dropping six percentage points to 57 percent, while nearly half of the population no longer watches linear TV.
Print media faces the steepest fall, with readership shrinking from 29 percent in 2022 to just 13 percent in 2025.
“This is a structural decline that shows no sign of reversal,” Omwayo said.
Meanwhile, online news websites are yet to become a daily habit. The report shows that 55 percent of Kenyans did not visit a news website on a typical day, reinforcing the dominance of social platforms as the primary gateway to news.
Social media usage remains widespread at 74 percent, with the report noting that “the battle is no longer about getting users online, but where they go once connected.”
As Kenya’s media sector evolves, the report captures an industry balancing rising public trust with the disruptive forces of digital migration and emerging technologies, chief among them artificial intelligence.