Nairobi — This week, Nairobi is hosting a global conversation that the African continent can no longer defer.
The three-day International Conference on Nuclear Energy (ICoNE 2026), which kicked off on Tuesday, has brought together governments, regulators, technical experts, and development partners to chart the continent's nuclear future.
It is a gathering of ambition but also, if we are honest, of profound responsibility. Aware of the weight the conference carries, President William Ruto will himself grace the meeting.
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During the early years before the three accidents that have defined nuclear history (Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima Daiichi), much of the debate around nuclear energy in Africa has centred on technology transfer, financing and infrastructure.
These concerns are legitimate. But there is a dimension that received less attention in the past, one that history has shown to be decisive. That dimension is safety. This is not a reason to fear nuclear energy. It is a reason to build the right foundations before the first concrete is poured.
At the Kenya Nuclear Regulatory Authority (KNRA), we recognise that regulatory agencies do not merely inspect facilities and issue notices. We shape the culture of the entire nuclear enterprise. How we conduct ourselves sets the tone for every operator, engineer and scientist who will work in Kenya's nuclear sector. An oversight culture must be deliberately cultivated within the regulator itself. We must model the transparency and continuous improvement we demand of others.
Kenya is early enough in its nuclear journey to build these habits from the ground up. Countries that developed nuclear programmes decades ago have had to unlearn deeply embedded cultures of defensiveness and hierarchy. We do not have to unlearn anything. We can simply build right.
One persistent misunderstanding in nuclear communication is that talking about safety frightens people. In my experience, the opposite is true that silence frightens people. Consider the metaphor of an aircraft: when the cabin crew walks through safety procedures before takeoff, no reasonable passenger concludes the plane is about to crash. They are reassured that the crew has prepared and knows what to do. Nuclear safety communication works the same way. Openness builds confidence; opacity destroys it.
Africa's nuclear ambitions will rise or fall not only on kilowatts and megaprojects, but on the trust of ordinary citizens. ICoNE 2026 is therefore the building block of public communication strategy as a core pillar, not an afterthought. Regulators and operators are meeting in one room and speaking with one honest voice.
Building a nuclear programme demands more than constructing a reactor. It requires building the human and institutional culture to run it safely for decades. This means creating environments where engineers feel safe raising concerns early before small anomalies become large problems.
It means rewarding the quiet consistency of professionals who do their jobs correctly every day, not just celebrating those who respond heroically when things go wrong. A culture that prizes crisis management over reliable performance is a culture building toward the next crisis.
It also means maintaining honest, structured feedback between regulator and operator not adversarial, but not too cosy either. Too much distance breeds ignorance; too much closeness risks capture. Finding and maintaining that balance is one of the most demanding tasks in public administration, and one we at KNRA are committed to getting right.
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When asked what legacy I wish to leave, my answer is simple. An institution that functions well long after I am gone. We have been entrusted by Kenyan and the larger nuclear ecosystem to build cultures, and capable people not dependence on one indispensable individual.
Kenya has a generation of young scientists and engineers entering this field with fresh eyes and genuine enthusiasm. The worst thing we could pass on is a culture of secrecy and hierarchy. The best is humility, openness, and the discipline of continuous improvement.
ICoNE 2026 is a signal to investors, governments, and our own citizens that Kenya is ready to engage with nuclear energy seriously and safely. Kenya has the opportunity to demonstrate that nuclear leadership is not just a matter of megawatts, but of the values and institutions we build.
The writer is the Director-General, Kenya Nuclear Regulatory Authority (KNRA)
