Kenya Appoints Lorna Ogolla, Joy Kibor to Cybersecurity Agency Board

Kenya has appointed two technology professionals to the board of the newly established National Cybersecurity Agency, bringing experience in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, data-centre infrastructure and research into the agency's leadership.

Interior and National Administration Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen appointed Lorna A. Omondi Ogolla and Dr Jerop Joy Kibor to the Board of Directors for a three-year term. The appointments took effect on September 11, 2026, under the State Corporations (National Cybersecurity Agency) Order, 2026, according to Gazette Notice No. 14420.

The two appointments bring very different technology backgrounds to the same table. Ogolla has spent much of her career working around Google's technology infrastructure and artificial intelligence efforts in Africa, while Kibor's work has centred on cybersecurity, AI research and higher education. That gives the new board experience that stretches from the infrastructure supporting modern digital systems to the research focused on securing them.

Ogolla is currently Partnerships Lead for Google Research in Africa, working on machine learning and AI initiatives across the continent. Her work has included efforts to improve the representation of African languages in AI datasets, an area that sits at the intersection of technology development and the data that powers it.

Her experience also extends into the infrastructure behind large-scale technology operations. Ogolla previously spent eight years at Google, including work connected to the company's global data-centre investments, before moving into its research organisation. She studied engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, giving the agency a board member whose experience spans both the physical infrastructure of digital services and the AI systems increasingly built on top of it.

Kibor comes from a different part of the technology ecosystem. She is an academic and cybersecurity researcher who has taught subjects including cybersecurity and artificial intelligence, and currently serves as Head of Postgraduate Studies in ICT at Zetech University.

Her research has also looked directly at the cybersecurity problems created by increasingly digital financial and communications systems. In a 2026 paper, Kibor examined the use of artificial intelligence, big data and cloud computing to address threats including SIM-swap fraud, USSD attacks and identity-based attacks in Africa.

Both will serve for three years as the new agency develops its institutional structure and begins carrying out its mandate under the 2026 State Corporations Order.