British taxpayers fund Kenyan sex chatbot

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1. >A “pleasure-oriented” sex chatbot for Kenyan teenagers was developed using aid money from British taxpayers, The Telegraph can disclose.

   >The app was built as part of a £41m UK aid programme which aims to invest in “radical technology solutions” to issues in the developing world.

   >The Nena chatbot was described as “a pleasure-oriented digital companion for young people exploring sexual health” and aimed at those between the ages of 18 and 24.

   >Other projects that have received taxpayer funding include “pay-as-you-chill” cold storage in Zambia and “smart contraceptive vending machines” in Nairobi.

   >MPs asked why taxpayers’ money was being “wasted” on such schemes and called for a review of foreign aid spending.

   >It is the latest in a series of disclosures by The Telegraph about aid spending including a £52m “road to nowhere” through the Amazon rainforest and a push to stop ocean plastic pollution in landlocked African countries.

   >Dame Priti Patel, the shadow foreign secretary, said: “Britain is a country, not a charity. In this ever-changing world UK Aid must serve our national interest.

   >“Aid allocations have not been strategic enough and far too much money has been funnelled into inappropriate projects without scrutiny or conditionality.”

   >The sex chatbot was funded in 2019 as part of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) Ideas to Impact aid programme which it says is aimed at “testing new technologies and innovative approaches to address development challenges”.

   >The chatbot was designed to encourage safe sex in Kenya, which has the third-largest HIV epidemic in the world and where more than half of new infections are among the young.

   >The developers discovered that there was “an interest among Kenyan youth to access information on sexual pleasure topics, including a strong interest in information on how to give and receive sexual pleasure”.

   >The topics of sex and pleasure made up about 70 per cent of the total number of app views, a review found.

   >However, of the 1,119 referrals sent to a local sexual health clinic through the app, not a single one led to further action.

   >Despite the lack of concrete results, officials said the pilot was “promising” and they would look at “further fundings”.

   >The FCDO refused to respond to questions about how much taxpayers’ money was spent on the chatbot and said it was “not appropriate for officials to comment on funding decisions made under previous administrations”.

   >**‘Foreign aid needs slashing’**

   >Lee Anderson, the Reform MP for Ashfield, said it was “more proof that foreign aid needs slashing”.

   >“I remember a time when money sent abroad was meant to help irrigate and farm the land in poorer countries,” he said. “British taxpayers’ money should not be being wasted on these ridiculous schemes. Whoever dreamt up this idea needs sacking.”

   >The Ideas to Impact programme, which won a Civil Service award for innovation, was seen as such a success that it received a five-year extension and is on course to be completed next year after spending £41m.

   >Part of the programme was the establishment of the “Frontier Hub”, a vehicle for the FCDO “to invest in early-stage ideas and radical technology solutions, build capacity to develop, use and govern technology responsibly and support locally led innovation”.

   >One of the hub’s latest projects, starting in November 2025, is an “AI Literacy Lab” designed to teach people across the Baltics how to spot deepfakes, which are realistic-looking videos, picture or audio clips made with artificial intelligence, and other online misinformation.

   >Other projects have included technology designed to improve water quality, apps for farmers to improve their harvest and tech to help diagnose diseases such as TB.

   >Each of the projects is “imagined” by a “pioneer” who works at the FCDO and is selected to take part in a pilot programme, according to the Frontier Hub website.

   >The “pioneers” are described as “thought leaders pushing the envelope of how technology is being used to solve development problems”.

   >The Telegraph’s revelations have led to calls for a review of the aid budget to reduce waste abroad.

   >Dame Priti said: “When I was development secretary, I built up a record of reviewing and stopping wasteful aid.

   >“The Conservatives are clear that we need wholesale reform of overseas aid, savings billions of pounds and ensuring British taxpayers’ money is used to support our country’s interest.”

   >An FCDO spokesman said: “The current Government has made clear that it is determined to deliver value for money for the taxpayer across the development budget.”

2. Conservatives vow to end issue that started and persisted under their government, but is somehow solely Labour’s fault.

3. So it was created to reduce HIV rates and promote sexual health, in the country with some of the highest rates of infection? I don’t see a problem here.

   Foreign aid saves us money in the long-term, it keeps areas of the world functioning, when they don’t function well we know what happens, the people migrate searching for a better life

4. The article doesn’t make sense, app funded in 2019 under the conservatives and now Shadow Foreign Secretary and Reform saying there should be a cut to Foreign Aid….but Foreign Aid has been cut twice since 2019, once by Boris in 2021 and again by Labour in 2025. The Telegraph is not a serious news outlet..

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