Kenyan Legislatures should leverage modern technology like Artificial Intelligence (AI) in hansard work, but with caution; members of the Hansard Association of Kenya (HAK) have advised.
Members of the Association, which brings together hansard practitioners from the National Assembly, the Senate and from across the 47 County Assemblies, made the remarks during an ongoing preparatory meeting for the eighth edition of the annual HAK conference to be held later in the year.
The Hansard officers noted that embracing Artificial Intelligence lessens work and fixes some of the existing human resource and capacity gaps experienced in hansard work at the national and county levels. However, they indicated that this needs to be undertaken with caution.
Among the areas of caution noted was the need to retain the human input in aspects such as quality control to ensure the records of the House or Committee proceedings are factual and meet the standards already set by the existing human hansard processing systems.
Acting Director for Hansard and Audio Services in the National Assembly, Mr. Stephen Mutungi, indicated that the National Assembly had already made strides in the AI aspect, having recently dispatched a team of officers to Estonia for a fact finding assignment on best AI-practice for Hansard.
A report on the same has already been prepared and is currently before the Board of Management for consideration.
Mr. Mutungi also indicated that HAK would create more collaborative forums for Hansard officers from the National legislature and the counties for peer learning and exchanges to enhance the capacity of hansard officers from the county assemblies.
“We have noted a lot of improvement in the quality of hansard work among county assemblies as a result of initiatives like the HAK conferences, and we need to enhance this,” noted Mr. Mutungi.
The preparatory meeting is happening in Maralal at the invitation of the County Assembly of Samburu.
Clerk of the Samburu County Assembly, Mr. Fred Lenapeer, officially opened the meeting yesterday.
By Anthony Solly
