Tech for governance programmes in Kenya: what is left of the conducive tech environment, and where to next?

Several early technology developments put Kenya on the map as the ‘tech capital’ of East Africa, and during the past decade, Kenya went through a period of overabundant funding for information and communications technology (ICT) solutions related to governance or development challenges. But ICT specialists, staff from non-governmental organisations / civil society organisations (CSOs) and donors tend to agree that not many applications (apps) and platforms developed at that time yielded results. This has led to a refocusing on different types of governance and development programmes. Too many of Kenya’s Making All Voices Count grantees repeated the same mistakes, which have been documented as well-known challenges for technology for transparency and accountability (Tech4T&A) initiatives: commissioning the design of custom-made tech platforms; overestimating smartphone use among their community members; and not engaging their communities in the design, piloting or testing of the tech product (de Lanerolle, Walker and Kinney 2016; Sika, Sambuli, Orwa and Salim 2014). Despite the fact that the implementing CSOs are in Kenya, not every organisation has sufficient in-house tech knowledge to be able to choose and implement a tech-based solution. When the tech component was slow in delivering results, Making All Voices Count grantees in Kenya worked hard to achieve governance improvements, and often managed to add in the tech component towards the end of the programme. In Kenya, the focus has shifted towards governance issues at the county level, and several proofs of concept developed with Making All Voices Count funding are suitable for adaptation and scaling up in accountability programmes at this level.