Factors Affecting the Adoption of E-government in County Governments: the Case of Narok County

Abstract

As new processes in information and communication technologies (ICT) develop and the advancement in the in digital connectivity, national and local governments are reassessing the way they work and interact both internally and with external organizations. This technology advancement has encouraged the government’s organizations and affiliations to reconsider their internal and external relations and transactions. In order to succeed and build for the future, the administrative processes of governments are being transferred to electronic systems. Therefore, governments worldwide are considering establishing an electronic approach to government organizations and agencies in order to provide and facilitate many services to people anywhere and at any time, and to replace traditional routine procedures. The study sought to establish factors affecting the adoption of e-Government in Narok county governments. The main research instrument was an interview guide and the study adopted a case study research design whereby the target interviewees were five employees of the county that consisted of senior and middle level management. The findings of the study were that unlike the National government, Narok County has been slow in embracing technology based transactions and only one function related to the gate collection from the Masai Mara National park had been fully automated by an Agent that was subcontracted to collect revenue. In addition, the lack of advanced and secure technical infrastructure was one of the main reasons why the county is hesitant to fully adopt e-Government. Issues such as systems integration, inadequacy of bandwidth, were found to be other factors affecting the offering e-Government services in the county. Therefore, for effective implementation of the e-Government strategy there is need for the county to restructure existing organizational models, roles, responsibilities, training, and employees’ needs. Training of employees’ lead to successful implementation of eGovernment and a lack of adequate training was found resulted in a significant challenge in the adoption of e-Government. The study recommends that the transformation to eGovernment services should be treated as a reform and restructuring process, and not merely the computerization of government operations. Therefore for efficient rolling over of the system, the county should borrow ideas from other regions or counties that have successfully implemented similar e-Government projects.