eGovernment is failing the most vulnerable

Kenya’s digital revolution has redefined public service. Tax filing, licensing, citizen registration and access to welfare have migrated online. Platforms like eCitizen now anchor State-citizen interaction. But beneath this modern veneer, the machinery of exclusion grinds on. Far from levelling the field, the digital government is coding inequality into its operating system.

Access to services increasingly requires a smartphone, stable connection and power, which millions don’t have. The result isn’t a digital divide. It’s digital abandonment. While national internet penetration hovers around 48 per cent, rural Kenya—home to nearly 70 per cent of the population—remains digitally out of reach. For many, browsing competes with eating. Even where connectivity exists, digital literacy doesn’t. Government systems assume a baseline of access and competence the majority lack. 

For women, the consequences are sharper. They are less likely to own smartphones, access the internet, or receive digital training. Patriarchal norms and income gaps isolate them from digital opportunity. Older citizens and indigenous language speakers face parallel exclusion. Interfaces are cluttered and typically available only in English or Kiswahili. 

Digital exclusion

Public administration has been converted into code, but the code rarely speaks to those outside the urban mainstream. Efficiency for some has become erasure for others.

The rollout of biometric digital ID systems reveals the dangers of scaling uncorrected bias. Huduma Namba, and now Maisha Namba, promised streamlined identity management, but without reform, it will entrench discrimination. Groups long targeted by opaque vetting, like Nubians and Muslims, now face exclusion at machine speed. 

Digital exclusion is not just structural, it is political. After the 2024 protests against the Finance Bill, the State escalated digital repression. Activists were arrested under the Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Act. Social media accounts were shut down. Surveillance expanded. Albert Ojwang was killed in police custody over a social media post. His death is a warning: the digital public square is not only uneven, it is also unsafe.

Digital tools can decentralise power, improve transparency and accelerate inclusion. But without equity at their core, they replicate injustice in faster, more opaque ways. The success of Kenya’s digital shift depends on who can use these systems, and who is left out. True transformation demands recalibration. Broadband must reach every county. Services must be multilingual. Interfaces must work for all literacy levels. Identity systems must be legally sound and bias-proof. Civic participation must be protected online as fiercely as off. Inclusion cannot be retrofitted. It must be foundational.

The writer is an AI and climate policy strategist and technology journalist. [email protected]