Kenya · Open market · Operating partnership
Access on this page: Signed: Kenyan Sign Language — pending How this page is tested
This page in sign language
Signed end to end by a Deaf creator, credited by name. International Sign on the global site; your national sign language on your country page.
ally is a platform where creators make sign language, captions and audio description — and one API delivers it to any screen. We are looking for the partner who will build the Kenyan operation with us.
Why we are looking for a partner
One partner video — spoken, captioned and signed by a creator we already work with. It is shared across every open-market page. We do not fake a local signer to look established here.
The people
Kenya's sign language is Kenyan Sign Language (KSL). The 2010 Constitution tells the State to promote it (Article 7) and makes it an official language of Parliament alongside Kiswahili and English (Article 120). The Programming Code has required 100% signing of news, national events and emergencies since 1 July 2016, and every major station complied. The Persons with Disabilities Act 2025 extends the duty to every public and private institution.
In plain words
Below is who lives here and what reaches them. Every number on this page is a research seed, not an audited claim — we mark them, rather than publish numbers we cannot yet stand behind.
Why captions alone do not close this gap → Why sign language
The mandate
the State shall promote the development and use of Kenyan Sign Language; the official languages of Parliament are Kiswahili, English and Kenyan Sign Language.
enforced from 1 July 2016: sign language interpretation required for news, emergencies and events of national importance; all major stations hired interpreters within the year.
signed 8 May 2025, in force 27 May 2025: public and private institutions shall accept and facilitate the use of Kenyan Sign Language, Braille and other accessible formats; KSL courses in all learning and training institutions.
Obligated buyers: all broadcasters under the Programming Code, public and private institutions under the Persons with Disabilities Act 2025, learning institutions required to teach KSL, and the national and county governments the Act binds.
The gap
Kenya is the rare market where the broadcast duty is delivered: the bulletin signs. Everything the 2025 Act now reaches — service counters, classrooms, private institutions — has no supply behind it, and the Act is unfunded until budgets follow. A partner arrives in a country that has already proved it will enforce, with the next duty freshly written.
What we bring
These are patterns, not promises — each one happened somewhere, and each carries its source. The place is abstracted because the pattern is what transposes.
Pattern
A replicable template: the ordinance language, the budget logic and the service behind it travel together. Any city can copy it.
Two city ordinances — one on healthcare accessibility, one on cinema accessibility — have passed first reading, with ally as technical partner.
Receipt: Parañaque City Council records
Pattern
The platform exists before the first contract. Buyers pay for a service, not for research.
ally's pre-operating research and development was supported by a national science research grant and a city government grant.
Receipt: company fact
Pattern
Real usage, real feedback, and the model for any school or district that wants signed content on what students already watch.
A telco-funded 2021 pilot brought the platform to a Deaf school community of about 800 users.
Receipt: company fact
We publish our signals — including the zeros — on the impact page.
The partnership
The structure is a licensed market operation, built with the local community. Terms are discussed directly.
The playbook
The partner
Operators with standing in accessibility, media, telecom, or government services. Deaf-led organisations and entrepreneurs are explicitly welcome — the best operator of an accessibility market may come from the community itself. Investors are welcome alongside an operator, or to introduce one.
Why now
The 2025 Act came into force on 27 May 2025 and puts a duty on every institution to accept and facilitate KSL. The country already enforced its broadcast rule in 2016 within a year. A partner who brings supply at scale meets a state with a record of enforcing what it writes.
Next step
Write to us — by form, by email, or with a signed or spoken video message. From there: an introductory call, an NDA, the Kenyan market dossier, then terms.
Questions