Natasha Karanja & Chebet Koros] When evaluating the copyright ecosystem within the African continent, a perceived imbalance is identified, where researchers face barriers in accessing materials protected by copyright.1 It has been claimed that African copyright regimes do not accommodate public interests because they do not support the research of various stakeholders, specifically within the new era of Artificial Intelligence research. For this reason, and according to one African scholar, African copyright regimes are considered “not fit for purpose”.2 The majority of the African copyright laws provide for a closed list of copyright exceptions, with none applying specifically to Text and Data Mining research.3 This article will define what Text and Data Mining (TDM) research is, its benefits, and outline the role of copyright in TDM research within the Kenyan context vis a vis other countries’ perspectives.