Digital Leaders Spotlight: Kenya

Kenya has set itself an ambitious digital transformation agenda. According to the Digital Master Plan (2022-2032), the country seeks to enhance government service delivery to citizens by digitalization of 80% of government services. However, there’s a lack of a coordinated approach, characterized by the siloed implementation of automation in the Ministries, Departments, and Agencies.

GovStack Approach  

GovStack in Kenya is implemented, foremost, through the Multi-Donor Action “Initiative for Digital Government and Cybersecurity” (IDGC) in the Horn of Africa. The IDGC is a Team Europe Approach together with Germany, France, and Spain co-financed by the European Union and the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).  The key activities include:

• Digital Government Strategy and Roadmap:  Evaluation of the strategic, technical, and regulatory prerequisites to introduce government e-services, through the implementation of a digital government roadmap for the introduction of government e-services.
• Service Design of e-government Use Case: Use case selection and design of priority digital public services based on the GovStack Approach to the digitization of government services.
• Capacity Development: Capacity development measures on digital government and change management for civil servants for the digitization of government services; regional and global communities of practice for peer-to-peer learning.

This is done together with core GovStack Partners. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) supports the technical service design of priority use cases. The Estonian Centre for International Development (EstDev) supports the development of Digital Readiness Studies and Digital Government Roadmaps. The Digital Impact Alliance (DIAL) and the International and Ibero-American Foundation for Administration and Public Policies (FIIAPP) support the work around capacity strengthening by setting up Communities of Practice and by developing capacity development measures.

Where we stand 

GovStack has received proposals from the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC) for the development and prototyping of integrated case management systems with the objective to streamline workflows and increase efficiency. The joint service design for the aforementioned national priority use cases has already started.   Furthermore, the team will develop an AI conversational chatbot that will improve citizen interactions and enhance discoverability on government websites and a county-level use case.  In addition to the activities listed above as part of the IDGC, Kenya-specific GovStack activities are implemented.  In August GovStack conducted a GovStack Roadshow to create awareness, strengthen the local digital ecosystem, and foster linkages with the wider GovStack community as well as the local Opensource community. Building on this community engagement a GovStack Hackathon is planned for beginning of 2024 in Nairobi.

Next Steps

• As a follow-up to the Roadshow, a GovStack Hackathon is planned to further strengthen the local ecosystem, to create innovative e-government solutions to specific challenges in the public sector, and to provide a platform for networking and learning new skills.
• In addition to the continuation of the service design for the e-government use cases, the initiative will provide needs-based capacity development measures, both online and offline, launch a GovStack community of practice in Kenya, as well as foster research and the development of guidelines for open-source-related intellectual property rights.
• Furthermore, based on the Digital Readiness Study, the Initiative will develop a national Digital Government Roadmap as a guiding document and a strategic plan for the government’s digital transformation journey