John Tanui recognised among global leaders shaping digital public infrastructure

Last Updated 4 hours ago by Kenya Engineer

Kenya’s Principal Secretary for ICT and the Digital Economy, Eng. John Kipchumba Tanui, has been named among 50 public-sector leaders featured in the 2026 DPI 50 List, an international recognition of individuals working to advance digital public infrastructure (DPI).

The list, compiled by Apolitical in collaboration with the World Economic Forum Global Future Council on GovTech and Digital Public Infrastructure, highlights public-sector leaders involved in building and scaling digital systems intended to make government services more connected, accessible and interoperable. The 2026 list covers both foundational infrastructure, including digital identity, payments and data exchange, and emerging forms of interoperable and AI-enabled infrastructure.

Tanui is featured in the Foundational DPI category. According to the profile accompanying his inclusion, his work in Kenya has included the expansion of the eCitizen platform, which now hosts more than 22,000 government transactions and services on a single platform. He has also been involved in efforts to strengthen interoperability through the Government Enterprise Architecture and Government Interoperability Framework.

These initiatives form part of a broader effort to move Kenya’s digital government systems away from isolated platforms towards infrastructure that allows different government institutions and services to communicate and exchange information.

The DPI 50 profile also cites the Ministry’s contribution to Kenya’s national DPI roadmap, covering three key building blocks: digital identity, digital payments and trusted data exchange. These components are increasingly regarded as shared infrastructure on which multiple public services can be built, rather than as standalone technology projects for individual government departments.

From digital services to shared infrastructure

The distinction is important because digital government does not simply depend on putting existing government forms and processes online. For digital services to work across institutions, the underlying systems need common standards, secure mechanisms for exchanging information and reliable ways of establishing identity and trust.

The DPI approach seeks to provide these common building blocks. A citizen, for example, should not necessarily have to create a separate identity or repeatedly provide the same information to every government agency when the underlying systems can securely verify and exchange the relevant data.

Kenya’s eCitizen platform represents one visible part of this transition. The expansion to more than 22,000 transactions and services illustrates the scale at which government services are being brought onto shared digital platforms. The interoperability work around government architecture and data exchange addresses a less visible but equally important layer: enabling different systems to work together.

For engineers and technology professionals, this places increasing emphasis on architecture, cybersecurity, data standards, connectivity, identity management and systems integration alongside the development of individual digital applications.

An increasingly African agenda

Tanui is one of several African public-sector technology leaders included in the 2026 DPI 50.

The list also recognises Eng. Daniel Sarungi of Tanzania’s Ministry of Information and Communication Technology for his work on JamiiStack, an interoperable digital public infrastructure ecosystem adopted by the Tanzanian government. Its components include a data exchange layer, digital identity tools, a government services portal and a national payments layer.

Rwanda’s Minister of ICT and Innovation, Paula Ingabire, is recognised in the Frontier DPI category for work aimed at preparing the country’s digital infrastructure for artificial intelligence. Her portfolio includes efforts around AI-ready data and computing infrastructure and the development of AI-enabled public services.

South Africa is represented through Dr Ayanda Hlatshwayo, who is recognised for her work on MzansiXchange, a national secure data exchange platform designed to allow authorised organisations to exchange information while data remains under the control of the institutions that hold it.

Benin’s Marc-André Loko is recognised for work involving digital identity, interoperability, digital services, trust infrastructure and cybersecurity. The DPI 50 profile says Benin’s interoperability platform connects around 65 public entities and 145 information systems.

Somalia’s Abdullahi Bihi Hussein, meanwhile, is recognised for his work across national digital identity and payments infrastructure, including his current role leading the Somali Payment Switch.

The range of projects illustrates that African countries are pursuing DPI through different institutional and technical approaches, while addressing common challenges around interoperability, digital identity, payments, data governance and access.

The next layer: AI-ready infrastructure

The 2026 DPI 50 also reflects a shift in the digital-government conversation from establishing basic digital infrastructure towards preparing government systems for artificial intelligence.

Apolitical divides the list between Foundational DPI and Frontier DPI. The latter includes emerging approaches that could shape the next generation of digital public infrastructure. Among the examples highlighted is Rwanda’s work to establish AI-ready public infrastructure, while Japan’s Digital Agency is cited for its work on shared AI environments and the use of digital identity infrastructure as a trust layer for government applications.

This progression puts greater importance on the quality and interoperability of the underlying data. AI systems deployed within government will depend not only on computing capacity but also on reliable, appropriately governed and securely accessible data.

For Kenya, the development of foundational DPI therefore provides infrastructure on which future digital services, including AI-enabled applications, could potentially be built.

A recognition of infrastructure work

Tanui’s inclusion also reflects a career spanning both government and the telecommunications and technology sectors. Before joining the Ministry, he served for more than seven years as chief executive of the Konza Technopolis Development Authority and previously spent 15 years at Huawei, where he was involved in the development of Kenya’s telecommunications infrastructure, including 3G and 4G networks.

The DPI 50 recognition comes as Kenya continues to expand digital government services while working towards greater interoperability between public-sector systems.

The technical challenge is increasingly moving beyond simply digitising individual services. As more services move online, the effectiveness of the digital state will depend increasingly on the infrastructure beneath them: how systems identify users, exchange data, authenticate transactions, protect information and provide a consistent experience across institutions.

The 2026 DPI 50 places that infrastructure work in an international context, with Tanui’s inclusion putting Kenya’s ongoing digital transformation alongside similar efforts being undertaken across Africa and other regions.