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Research Briefing June 2016

Has Kenya’s ICT revolution triggered more citizen participation?

Published on 1 June 2016

In this brief, Nyambura Salome surveys the extent to which Kenya’s information and communications technology (ICT) revolution transforms e-government – implementing decisions with the help of ICTs – into e-governance – using ICTs to help make decisions (Marche and McNiven 2003). Her study of Nairobi, the country’s main technology hub, concludes that ICTs do not necessarily trigger better governance. State actors mistake e-government for e-governance and are often indifferent to citizens’ aspirations for more public participation. On the other side of the state–citizen interface, and despite an explosion of e-government tools, only a small minority of Nairobi citizens use ICTs to engage with the state. At the end of the day, it seems that much of Kenya’s ICT governance revolution is still yet to mature, lacking a concerted effort from state actors to engage with non-state actors.

Cite this publication

Salome, N. (2016) Has Kenya’s ICT revolution triggered more citizen participation? Brighton: IDS.

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Publication details

published by
Institute of Development Studies
authors
Salome, Nyambura
language
English

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Region
Kenya

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