A framework for the implementation of E-government in Kenya

Abstract

The arrival of the internet has led citizens to expect faster, better and more responsive access to government services. Simultaneously there is increasing pressure to provide more open and transparent policy implementation, including detailed performance monitoring and benchmarking. As the world gets more complex and unpredictable, public institutions need to respond quickly and ~. flexibly to unforeseeable events. All these demands come at a time when public expenditure is more scrutinized than ever before. These pressures have driven public institutions to seek technology solutions to many of these problems, and the move towards e-govemment is well underway. E-government can deliver massive benefits. Implemented correctly it can enable cooperation between independent agencies and transform the way that citizens access and interact with government. In some cases it has the potential to redefine the social contract between citizens and state. Poorly implemented, the best result that one can hope for is a waste of public resources with a considerable risk of irrevocable harm to citizens and state though loss of privacy, transparency, access, flexibility and national competitiveness. E-govemment projects have many stakeholders, and may involve multiple independent agencies with different systems, skills and requirements. While these'projects can present major social, t political and technical challenges, it is the communication between agencies and systems that delivers the true benefits of e-govemment. It is therefore imperative that public institutions take the widest possible view ofthe many ways egovernment can and should be implemented before committing to specific architectures, technologies or vendors.