Nairobi, July 7 -- For many organisations, AI governance still amounts to little more than a page on the corporate website. It lists reassuring principles-fairness, transparency and human oversight-that are approved by the board, admired briefly and rarely tested in practice. It is governance by aspiration rather than evidence.

Those days are ending. What matters is no longer what a board says about AI, but what it can demonstrate. The next regulator, customer or court asking how an AI system reached a decision may have the authority to inspect the evidence.

By introducing the Artificial Intelligence Bill, Kenya is giving legal force to what was previously voluntary guidance. Drawing heavily from the EU AI Act, the Bill classifies AI sy...