THE ARCHITECTURE GAP

This paper interrogates the structural, institutional, and normative pitfalls arising from Sub-Saharan Africa's artificial intelligence (AI) governance deficit, situating the regional analysis within a comparative global framework. Grounded in emerging African legislative experience, specifically focusing on the Kenya Artificial Intelligence Bill, 2026, as a leading regional case study, the research identifies five critical failure dimensions: regulatory fragmentation, data sovereignty vulnerabilities, algorithmic rights deficits, innovation-suppression paradoxes, and the extraterritorial governance gap. Ultimately, the paper projects the continent’s AI governance trajectory over the next decade (2026–2035) and offers an original, context-sensitive framework to guide policymakers toward building sovereign digital architectures that align with Africa's distinct developmental realities.