A new e-Government strategy is in the offing as renewed efforts to transform public service delivery through the use of ICT intensify.  The new strategy, which will be Kenya’s second after the first one elapsed in 2005 with very dismal results is expected to usher in new thinking in the use of IT in Government including cloud computing, shared services and access of public services through mobile platforms.
 

The draft of the new strategy was presented to stakeholders as a day-long stakeholder consultive meeting in Nairobi yesterday. According to Dr Katherine Getao, the ICT Secretary in the Directorate of e-Government, most strategies fail because of lack of resources and capacity to implement the various programmes. The Directorate through the strategy is, therefore, seeking to restructure itself and align itself with the Vision 2030 and the implementation of the new constitution to make it relevant and also guarantee a steady flow of resources.
The new constitution increases the rights of individuals and sets out strong information access and reporting requirements for central government. This, according to Dr Getao, can be achieved through effective, efficient and innovative use of e-Government.
“The Vision 2030 Delivery Secretariat has already accepted to have e-Government as one of the flagship projects due its transformational nature,” said Dr Getao. ICT is increasingly finding its way into the Vision 2030 agenda. A few weeks a go, Mr Mugo Kibati, the Director General of the Vision 2030 Delivery Secretariat indicated that after consultations with various stakeholders in the ICT sector, they had expanded the Business Processing Pillar in the Vision to include IT Enable Services (ITES).
Dr Getao envisages a one-stop shop with end-to-end public service delivery regardless of location. “We need to change the experience of the citizens in accessing public service,” she said. “Citizens seeking public services should have the same experience as when accessing services from say Safaricom or Airtel,” she continued.
The proposed strategy is meant to run from 2011 to 2013 and is divided into two broad areas – An efficient Government and the Public. Under the Efficient Government the strategy deals with issues of ICT infrastructure, shared services and a national information infostructure. Under the Public, the strategy outlines the focus areas as easy access to public service, easy payment methods and the e-services bouquet.
The ICT Secretary said her directorate is currently faced with numerous challenges as a result of the silo-approach to ICT procurement and implementation in Government leading to many stand-alone applications on multiple platforms. This makes support these applications difficult, as they require different skills sets, which may not necessarily be readily available to the Directorate.
The stakeholder workshop, which had representation from both the private and public sectors was meant to provide input into the draft document before it is refined and later presented to the cabinet for approval.