So when the Kenyan Government stood on the pedestal and announced to all that it was bringing in electronic government, popularly known as e-government, expectations rose among citizens that it would make it easier for them to access public services over which they not only have a right but whose provision they finance through payment of taxes.
This optimism was correctly based on the precedents that e-government has set in the management of public affairs in many countries throughout the world and whose impact is felt mainly on two fronts.
First, using the world wide web to transmit information throughout a complex organisation such as the Government should change the power equation by denying the bureaucrats the platform to hoard useful documents or deny citizens access to service with the intention of extorting money from them. This is the reason technology has been credited with creating an environment that promotes openness and curbs corruption.
Equally important is the role that technology plays in relaying information with speed— in fact in real time. This means that as opposed to a system where consumers have to wait for days, even months to access information, they can actually do so instantly provided they have the necessary tools.
It is because of this that disappointment is rising among millions of Kenyans who had hinged their hopes on service improvement through e-government.
Since its launch the project into which the state has spent millions of shilling of taxpayers money has yielded disappointing results. True to its promise, technology has delivered the promise of openness — especially in casting light into the shadow of darkness has been permanently hanging over many facets of government. And with amazing results.
Many Kenyans will for example remember how Parliament, the institution that should be the paragon of openness reacted when the media used its website to give the public an insight into the calibre of MPs they have by publishing their qualifications as posted on the website. It shut down the website for weeks and only reactivated it after it was emptied of all useful information. Many government websites have followed suit — either shutting their sites down or letting them to bear stale information that the public have no use for over several months.
Quelle/Source: Business Daily Africa, 10.08.2007
