Nutanix, a leader in hybrid multicloud computing, will use its participation at AI Everything Kenya x GITEX Kenya 2026 to highlight how East African organisations can turn AI ambition into practical deployment while maintaining sovereignty, security, cost control and operational simplicity. The event marks the first GITEX exhibition in East Africa and is expected to convene technology leaders, policymakers and innovators focused on advancing AI and digital economies across the region.
Taking place in Nairobi from 19 to 21 May 2026, the event brings together technology leaders, policymakers, investors, startups and enterprises at a time when the region is accelerating its role in the continent’s AI and digital economy. Its focus on inclusive access reflects a growing regional priority to ensure that AI adoption supports governments, citizens, SMEs, developers and enterprises at different levels of cloud maturity and technical capability.
The conversation is becoming more practical as organisations look at how AI can be deployed securely, governed properly and scaled responsibly. As more organisations test generative AI, automation and data-driven services, the next challenge is to build an operating model that allows AI workloads to run across public cloud, regional infrastructure, private environments and the edge, according to their cost, governance, latency and data requirements.
“East Africa has a real opportunity to build AI adoption on practical foundations,” said Tunde Abagun, Sales Lead for West, East and Central Africa at Nutanix. “The region can build AI access while retaining control over data, cost and governance. The strongest progress will come from organisations that can place AI workloads intelligently across cloud, core and edge environments while keeping operations consistent and secure.”
Nutanix believes this practical hybrid multicloud approach is especially relevant as Kenya continues to build momentum around cloud policy, digital infrastructure, data centre investment, connectivity, skills development and responsible AI deployment.
The company’s message at GITEX Kenya will centre on how organisations can avoid new forms of AI lock-in, particularly where models, cloud tooling and data services become tied to a single environment too early.
Through Nutanix Enterprise AI, GPT-in-a-Box 2.0 and the broader Nutanix Cloud Platform, organisations can deploy and manage AI workloads across on-premises, public cloud, and edge environments with a more consistent operational model. This includes support for secure inference endpoints, role-based access control, observability, open-source models and deployment patterns that help organisations retain control over sensitive data while still enabling access to modern AI capabilities.
“Meaningful AI inclusion depends on more than access to models. Organisations also need predictable economics, clear governance and infrastructure that can scale without weakening control. That is particularly important in markets where public sector services, financial institutions, universities, startups and developers all need routes into AI that are secure, affordable and locally relevant,” says Abagun.
Nutanix’s participation at GITEX Kenya will also support broader discussions around a practical 90-day path to AI deployment, including readiness assessment, data classification, model selection, security guardrails, private GenAI sandboxes, secure inference APIs, cost baselining and governance review. These steps are intended to help organisations turn high-level AI interest into use cases that can be tested, secured, measured and scaled.
As East Africa’s AI ecosystem develops, Nutanix will continue working with customers and regional stakeholders to support infrastructure strategies that balance innovation with sovereignty, security, portability and long-term operational control.
