Operationalizing Digital Sovereignty: A Privacy-Preserving Protocol for Cross-Border Threat Intelligence in East Africa

Authors

Steve Gamba, University of Nairobi, Kenya

James Kimuyu, National Defence University, Kenya

Elisha Abade, University of Nairobi, Kenya

Published in

IST-Africa 2026 Conference Proceedings

ISSN: 2576-8581

ISBN: 978-1-905824-76-2

DOI: https://doi.org/10.67725/IST-Africa.2026.LKMA2986

Publisher

IST-Africa Institute and IIMC International Information Management Corporation Ltd

Published in Ireland

Abstract

Data-localization regimes across Africa impose strong constraints on cross-border handling of sensitive operational telemetry, yet effective cyber defense requires timely supervisory visibility across interconnected Critical Information Infrastructure (CII). This paper proposes the Secure Regulatory & Audit Query Protocol (SRAQP), implemented as a Cryptographically Verifiable State Machine (CVSM), to enable regulators to verify execution of mandated supervisory analytics without exfiltrating protected institutional data. SRAQP combines TrustLang, a formally constrained declarative policy language for specifying supervisory conditions, zk-SNARK attestations of correct local execution over pre-committed datasets, and Byzantine Fault Tolerant consensus to record outcomes as deterministic, replayable state transitions suitable for audit. An analytical pilot model of a National Monetary Authority supervising forty banks demonstrates feasibility of deterministic verification under data-localization constraints and highlights how protocol-based verification can reduce reliance on discretionary institutional reporting while preserving privacy.

Keywords

Data Localization, Regulatory Verification, Digital Sovereignty, Zero-Knowledge Proofs, Byzantine Fault Tolerance, Critical Information Infrastructure

Cite this paper

S. Gamba, J. Kimuyu and E. Abade (2026) "Operationalizing Digital Sovereignty: A Privacy-Preserving Protocol for Cross-Border Threat Intelligence in East Africa", IST-Africa 2026 Conference Proceedings, Miriam Cunningham and Paul Cunningham (Eds), IST-Africa Institute and IIMC, 2026, ISSN: 2576-8581, ISBN: 978-1-905824-76-2, https://doi.org/10.67725/IST-Africa.2026.LKMA2986

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