Factors Influencing Digital Divide In the Rural-And Semi-Urban Regions of Kenya: Case Study of Juja Town and the Surrounding Areas

Abstract

Digital divide is the gaps between those with regular, effective access and use of digital technologies, in particular the Internet, and telecommunication facilities and those without. The global digital divide is a term often used to describe the gap between more and less economically developed nations, while at the national level, there is often an urban-rural divide. In developing countries, most Internet telecommunication services users gain access through public access points like Internet cafés, public pay phones, Telecentre and digital villages. In this report, the researcher took a closer look at the digital divide within Kenya. Based on a survey among Internet café public pay phones, Telecentre and digital village users in rural and semi-urban regions of the country. The study intended to find out if the divide is mainly a question of finding venues with technology to access the Internet and other ICT services or does there exists other factors. The study therefore explored the real issues influencing low penetration of technology to the rural and the peri-urban regions of Kenya by employing a descriptive approach to collect data analyze and deduce inferences. The findings of this study therefore have been used to generalize the rural and semi-urban regions of the country with similar to the regional characteristics as the one under study and draw a conclusion, which informed the recommendations made here to bridge the digital disparity gap.