A Nairobi-based creative education platform Kelele Comics is seeking to increase the number of Kenyan publishers in the multibillion dollar comic industry by availing artificial intelligence tools to young learners.
Kelele Comics Chief Operations Lead Joe Gweth says through AI, Kenya can expand the pool of comic publishers by leveraging AI to assist in storytelling and graphic design which many young people still lack.
“We realize that in Africa most people are consumers of content. What we are trying to do at Kelele Comics is trying to rewrite the narrative and ensure that we have our teenagers and the youth having a platform to tell much of the story to the rest of the world,” said Gweth.
In April this year, the organization had it first cohort of students who were equipped with the craft of visual storytelling, gained hands-on experience with AI image generation tools, produced fully illustrated comics, and published their works online.
According to Gweth, the pilot programme enrolled 26 students who also gained skills such as script writing to enable them develop their fictional writing, theatre and use tools for graphic design.
“We have five published comics from our pilot programme that we launched in April this year. Our five pioneer comics were done by teenagers ranging from ages of 13-17 years. These are people who were complete novices, who had no experience in the creative space, AI tools and now they are good at them,” added Gweth.
Kelele Comics is now targeting 60 comics in its August 2026 cohort and will have an expanded curriculum and additional school partnerships.
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