Paragraph 6.2.4 of the National Information Communication and Technology Policy Guidelines of 2020 mandated that a company must have at least 30% substantive Kenyan ownership to be licensed by the Communication Authority to provide ICT services in Kenya. This requirement applied until August 2023 when, through Gazette Notice 11079 dated 22 August 2023, the Kenyan Cabinet Secretary for Information, Communications, and the Digital Economy formally announced the deletion of the paragraph. According to Section 2 of the Kenya Information and Communications Act, information and communication technologies encompass the technologies used in collecting, storing, using, or transmitting information, including those involving computers or any telecommunication system. This definition includes ICT, telecommunication, and audiovisual services. Previously, this ownership requirement was 20% for telecommunications licensees.

According to Art. 34.2 of the Industrial Property Act of 2001, an applicant whose ordinary residence or principal place of business is outside Kenya is obliged to be represented by an agent who shall be a citizen of Kenya admitted to practice before the Kenya Industrial Property Institute.

Kenya is a party to the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT).

The Copyrights Act provides a regime of copyright exceptions that follows the fair dealing model, which enables the lawful use of copyrighted work by others without obtaining permission. According to Art. 26, it is permitted the use of copyrighted works for educational purposes, the incidental inclusion of works in a broadcast or film, the non-for-profit use of works in public, the broadcast of works intended to be used for systematic instructional activities, the use of works by the government, public libraries and non-commercial documentation centres as well as the use of works for judicial purposes, provided the author and the source are indicated.

Copyright is not adequately enforced online in Kenya. Copyright piracy and the use of unlicensed software are reported to be prevalent in the country. Businesses in the country have also expressed concern about the online distribution of copyright-infringing content.

Kenya has signed the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Copyright Treaty in December 1996, but has not ratified it.

According to The National Information Communication and Technology Policy Guidelines of 2020, Kenyan-built ICT solutions are preferred over any other solution in the award of public tenders. Where there are no local Kenyan businesses that meet tender requirements, the successful tenderer must provide adequate proof that they will implement a skills transfer program to local firms and personnel as part of the tender award process. Foreign companies have until August 2023 to adhere to this requirement.

Section 157.8 (b) of the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act stipulates that a prescribed margin of preference shall be applied in the evaluation of tenders submitted by candidates offering goods manufactured, assembled, mined, extracted or grown in Kenya. Alternatively, a preference may be applied to works, goods, and services, depending on the percentage of locals' shareholding on a graduated scale as prescribed. In accordance with Section 89 of the Act, which concerns international tendering and competition, and for the purposes of Section 157.8 (b), Regulation 164 of the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Regulations stipulates that the margin of preference shall be:
- 20% margin of preference for the evaluated price of the tender given to candidates offering goods manufactured, mined, extracted, grown, assembled or semi-processed in Kenya, and the percentage of shareholding of Kenyan citizens is more than 50%.
- 15% given to candidates offering goods manufactured, mined, extracted, grown, assembled or semi-processed in Kenya.
- 10%, where the shareholding percentage of Kenyan citizens is more than 50%.
- 8%, where the shareholding percentage of Kenyan citizens is less than 50% but above 20%.
- 6%, where the shareholding percentage of Kenyan citizens is above 5% and less than 20%.

Where the procuring entity seeks to contract with non-Kenyan firms or procure foreign goods, the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act requires a report detailing evidence of an inability to procure locally (Art. 155.5). On the other hand, for the purpose of ensuring sustainable promotion of local industry, a procuring entity must have in its tender documents a mandatory requirement as preliminary evaluation criteria for all foreign tenderers participating in international tenders to source at least 40% of their supplies from citizen contractors prior to submitting a tender (Art. 157.9). Notably, since 2015, an initiative dubbed “Buy Kenyan Build Kenya” has required Kenyan state ministries, departments, and agencies to procure at least 40% of their supplies locally. Furthermore, the Act calls for at least 30% of government procurement contracts to go to firms owned by women, youth, and persons with disabilities (Art. 157.10).
In addition, the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Regulations of 2020 mandate that tender proposals include skills and knowledge transfer to Kenyan citizens, a 75% set aside of employment opportunities for Kenyans, and a local content plan (Art. 144).

Section 157.4 of the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act stipulates that reservations and preferences shall be applied to candidates belonging to disadvantaged groups, micro, small and medium enterprises, identified regions, and other categories as may be prescribed.

Kenya is not a signatory of the 1996 World Trade Organization (WTO) Information Technology Agreement (ITA) nor the 2015 expansion (ITA II).

According to Section 157.8 of the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act, exclusive preferences are given to citizens of Kenya where the funding is 100% from the national government, county government or a Kenyan body, and the amounts are below the prescribed threshold. The prescribed threshold for exclusive preference should be above five hundred million shillings (approx. USD 3,600,000)

According to Art. 16 of the Law on Communication, technical means of communication used in the telecommunications network of the Republic of Kazakhstan are subject to a procedure of mandatory conformity acknowledgement by the authorities. The equipment has to be submitted to certification bodies recognised (or approved) by the regulator for certification.

In accordance with subparagraph 4-1 of Art. 7 of Law No. 544, the Minister of National Economy of Kazakhstan ordered the approval of the Rules of Domestic Trade (Order No. 264). Arts. 105-1 and 106-1 of the Rules mandate e-commerce sellers to indicate their BIN (business identification number), address of business operations on the territory of Kazakhstan and mobile telephone number registered in Kazakhstan in order to operate in the country. Additional information on this requirement is found in Annex 3-10 of Order No. 4.