AN ASSESSMENT OF SUCCESSFUL IMPLEMENTATION OF DIGITAL VILLAGES IN KENYA

Abstract

Information Communication Technology (ICT) is quickly changing the conventional way of running business inKenya. It is upon this foundation that the Kenyan government under the ICT board realized a need to set up digitalvillages otherwise known as Pasha Centers (Swahili word meaning to inform). The glaring disparities betweenurban and rural areas in the distribution of ICT facilities necessitated the government of Kenya to set up digitalvillages whose key functions were to provide a suite of services to the public via computers connected to theinternet. This paper therefore aimed to assess the successful implementation of digital villages in a case of PashaCenters. Mail based questionnaires were used to collect data from the 50 pasha managers in different counties.Key informant interviews were administered to ICT board members in order to obtain their views on why digitalvillages were facing teething challenges yet it is a government project, secondary data was also used to obtain theneeded information. The findings of this study indicated that that successful implementation is faced withimmense challenges such as loan repayment, delayed support from ICT-A, lack of inadequate working capital andstiff competition, government had not given its full support in terms of marketing and popularizing the digitalvillages. The findings further revealed that many people do not differentiate between a pasha center and anyother cyber, Pasha Managers on the other hand have made intense efforts to make implementation of this projecta success despite the challenges faced. Thus, the discussion part of this paper looks at how digital villages shouldbe branded and given full government support in order to meet its stated objectives and move Kenya into an ICThub. The study concludes by recommending that there should be two models used for this project, theentrepreneur and business model.