Who gets a say as Africa races to write AI rules?

A new African council wants ordinary people to help shape artificial intelligence (AI) rules as governments across the continent develop policies to govern the technology.

The Africa Public Interest AI Council (APiAC), established by the Samawati Collective, will assess whether AI development serves the interests of ordinary Africans as governments formulate policies to regulate the technology. It will commission research, convene public discussions and advise governments on how AI affects democratic participation, cultural expression and economic opportunity.

The council brings together six members with backgrounds in journalism, AI governance, language technology, data infrastructure and digital finance.

Its founders say it will serve an initial two-year term and operate independently of governments, funders and commercial interests.

The initiative comes as African governments develop AI policies amid concerns about the technology’s impact on local languages, access to data, public accountability and elections.

Maurice Otieno, co-founder and executive director of the Samawati Collective, says discussions about AI often focus on investment, infrastructure and regulation without giving enough attention to how the technology affects ordinary people.

“We didn’t want to build another institution to fill that gap. We wanted a small group of independent minds who could say, in public, what others in those rooms can’t or won’t,” Otieno says.

The council will assess whether Africa’s AI transition expands public participation and shared prosperity rather than concentrating benefits among a few institutions or businesses.

Language and data gaps

The council’s launch comes against the backdrop of limited AI infrastructure and language representation across Africa.

A 2025 study cited by the council found that only 42 of about 2,000 African languages were supported by major large language models, with just four consistently covered: Amharic, Swahili, Afrikaans and Malagasy.

The gap raises concerns that AI systems could deepen existing inequalities if they perform well in widely represented languages but poorly in languages spoken by communities with limited digital representation.

Chido Dzinotyiwe, co-founder and chief executive of Vambo AI, says language access must be considered from the beginning of AI development.

“Language is where the gap is easiest to see,” Dzinotyiwe says. “If a model can’t follow how people actually speak, it isn’t serving them, however advanced it is. That has to be a design decision from the start.”

Africa also has a limited share of global data centre capacity. The continent accounts for about 18 per cent of the world’s population but holds 0.6 per cent of global data centre capacity, compared with nearly 45 per cent in the United States, figures attributed to the Africa Data Centres Association and the World Economic Forum show.

The council also wants African countries to examine who owns the data used to develop AI systems and who benefits from the technology’s growth.

Charlette N’Guessan, who leads data solutions and AI ecosystem and government partnerships at Amini, says data ownership will shape the continent’s role in the AI economy.

“Data is infrastructure, and the continent is mostly a source of it,” N’Guessan says. “Who collects it, who owns it, and who benefits will decide whether Africa takes part in this economy or just supplies it.”

Kenya’s 2027 election in focus

The council’s work also has implications for Kenya, where concerns about online disinformation are likely to feature in discussions ahead of the 2027 General Election.

Trust Lab reported 17 major coordinated disinformation campaigns in 2025.

A separate report by Anthropic on the misuse of its systems described an account allegedly used to produce political content targeting Kenya ahead of the election.

These developments raise questions about how AI-generated content could influence political debate, mislead voters and make it harder to establish the authenticity of information shared online.

John-Allan Namu, founder of Africa Uncensored, says newsrooms must scrutinise the systems shaping what voters see, not just the content they publish.

“My job is to ask who holds power and who answers for it,” Namu says. “Those questions now apply to algorithms that shape what voters see. Newsrooms need to be asking them before 2027, not after.”

The council’s formation comes as African governments and institutions consider how to balance AI innovation with safeguards for citizens.

The African Union adopted its Continental Artificial Intelligence Strategy in July 2024, setting out a framework for the continent’s approach to the technology.

The strategy entered its implementation phase in 2025, with a midterm review scheduled for 2027.

Maha Jouini, an AI governance expert and founder of Chifaa, says governments should judge their AI frameworks by whether they protect people with the least power.

“Every government is drafting a framework right now,” Jouini says. “The test of each one is simple: does it protect the person with the least power? Governance isn’t a brake. It’s how a society decides what innovation is for.”

Kofi Yeboah, a programme officer at the Mozilla Foundation, says African countries should also have a stronger role in setting the standards that govern AI systems.

“The infrastructure gap gets all the headlines, but a gap in who decides is harder to close,” Yeboah says. “Openness and accountability can’t be bolted on after the systems are built. Africa has to help write those norms.”

Obinna Okerekeocha, founder of the Naija AI Film Festival, says trust in digital systems depends on organisations explaining how their technology works and how it affects users.

The council plans to use research and public discussions to shape policy recommendations for governments and other institutions.

Its challenge will be to turn those recommendations into practical safeguards and ensure communities often excluded from technical debates have a voice in decisions shaping Africa’s digital future.