A web-Based application for public participation in Governance for Murang’a County, Kenya.

Abstract

Information and Communication Technology holds great potential to transform public participation and service delivery and influence government decision-making. Mobility of accessibility is being regarded as a new paradigm in computing. ICT can help bypass the need for traditional networks of physical interaction and communication when seeking information. However, public participation in Murang‟a County governance is through town hall meetings, budget validation forum and notice boards which are faced with problems like lack of awareness, a large number of people not having time to attend public meetings, and inability to reach large number of people. The aim of the study was to investigate how public participation in governance can be enhanced by ICTs in Murang‟a County and develop a web-based application towards this enhanced participation. The study objectives were to: assess how the public participate in governance in Murang‟a County; establish the challenges faced in the current methods of public participation; investigate how ICT can be used to enhance public participation; identify and analyze requirements for an ICT solution and to design and develop a web based application to support public participation in governance for Murang‟a County. The study was informed by Direct theory and Technology-organazition-Environment framework that guided the development and implementation of public participation processes. Qualitative research design was used for requirements gathering and analysis. This study used both interviews and observation for data collection which led to in-depth knowledge of the requirements. The population of the study consisted of 942,581 residents of Murang‟a County. Using purposive sampling a sample of 30 respondents was drawn from Murang‟a town. The main goal of purposive sampling was to focus on particular characteristics of a population which would enable researcher to answer research questions. This study found out that there existed various methods and techniques used for public participation in Murang‟a County which included workshops and public meetings. The study identified both functional and non-functional requirements for an ICT solution. This study adopted agile software development methodology in developing the system while unified modeling language was used for system modeling. A web-based application that supports public participation was developed. It is recommended that the system be adopted for effective and efficient participation by residents in decision making. It is further recommended that citizens of Murang‟a County be sensitized about its use.