Effect of e-government practices/strategy on service delivery in the public sector: case of huduma center Nakuru County

Abstract

The term e-government refers to the use of new Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) by governments in carrying out government functions through the application of networking potential offered by the internet and related technologies that can transform the structures and operations of government. In Kenya, the government has adopted initiatives to enhance e-government. These include the Huduma centre, where services are provided by different departments jointly from a one-stop-shop and e-citizen, e-visa and e-business portals where citizens can access government services at the comfort of their homes. The purpose of this study was to establish the effect of e-government practices/strategies on service delivery in the Huduma centre in Nakuru County. The study was guided by the following specific objectives; to determine the effect of e-citizen adoption on service delivery, to establish the effect of e-business adoption strategy on service delivery, to determine the effect of e-visa adoption strategy on service delivery and to establish the combined effect of e-citizen, e-business, and e-visa Adoption on service delivery in the Huduma centre in Nakuru County. The study focused on the individual and joint effect of e-citizen, e-business and e-visa practices on service delivery in the Huduma centre in Nakuru County. The study was guided by the theory of technology acceptance and the theory of planned behaviour and employed a case study research design. The target population was the citizens receiving the services at the Huduma centre in Nakuru County. A sample of 378 respondents was sampled by using systematic sampling. Data was collected through a structured questionnaire and analysed using a statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 20. A response rate of 78% was obtained for this study. Descriptive analysis was used to describe e-government and service delivery, while regression analysis was used to test for the hypothesis and to determine the effect of e-government on service delivery. The study findings revealed that e-citizen, e-business, and e-visa adoption strategies independently and jointly have a significant effect on service delivery. From the research findings, the study recommends that more counters at the Huduma centres should be created to ease congestion and better innovation to access the services remotely to avoid citizens having to visit Huduma centres themselves.