Factors Influencing Access to Government Services Through E-government Programme: a Case of Starehe Subcounty, in Nairobi, Kenya

Abstract

Governments around the world are under pressure to hasten their execution of egovernment, so as to improve the accessibility, good organization and promptness of their services. Nevertheless, there are no suitable policies and models to help in the process as each government is working with their own developed programmes to implement egovernment. Kenya’s digital gap is widening as the (ICT) Information and Communication Technology policy does not have a defined mechanism to warrant equal access and inclusion. The purpose of the study was to examine the factors influencing access to government services through e-government programme. The study was steered by the following objectives; to analyze how ICT infrastructure influences access to government services via e-government programme; to examine how the level of education influences right to use government services through e-government programme; to evaluate how economic status influences the right to use government services through egovernment programme; to explore the influence of cultural factors in accessing government services through e-government programme. The sample of this study was restricted to Kenyan citizens who are identity card holders, working or residing in Starehe Sub-County. Literature recognised any research and other sources of information available that related to the study. A sample size of 384 was used to symbolize the larger population in the study. The study used descriptive survey approach by developing a questionnaire for it. The questionnaire was designed and centred on the research conceptual model. Analysis and explanation of the collected data was done using statistical package for social sciences package (SPSS). Information collected resolve to be presented in frequency tables. The study examined the factors influencing right to use government services through e-government programme. Out of the 384 respondents only 271(71%) were completed and submitted. The study concluded that all the four factors; ICT infrastructure, level of education, economic and cultural phenomena where critical in accessing e-government services. While the ICT infrastructure had tremendously improved the level of access was still wanting. 88% of the respondents were able to access the internet. 93% had at least basic knowledge in ICT yet only 62% found egovernment platforms resourceful. Although 59% found e-government services economically affordable and 94% found it useful, only 50% could navigate easily. This showed that people attitude towards technology was important and there was need for orientation as well as sensitization to create awareness and significance of the same. The study proposed that further research to be conducted on the consistency of plan of implementation of e-government programme; to examine how government policies influence the performance of e-government services and to discuss the monitoring and evaluation strategies of e-government programme.