Nairobi, July 8 -- There was a time when the most trusted keeper of secrets was the local priest. People confessed their fears, failures and deepest regrets, confident that whatever was shared in confidence would remain protected. Doctors, lawyers and journalists later earned similar trust through professional ethics that placed confidentiality above all else.

Today, our most intimate confessions are no longer whispered across a wooden booth. They are typed into search engines, shared with AI assistants, stored in banking apps, recorded by fitness trackers and submitted through government portals. The modern-day priest is no longer a person but the digital systems we rely on every day.

Artificial intelligence has accelerated this transf...