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Records Digitization Failures Risk Digital Kenya; Urges ICT-Records Unity.

Ms. Mary Kerema, OGW, Secretary ICT e-government and Digital Economy.

Nairobi, Kenya - July 16, 2025.

 Ms. Mary Kerema, OGW, delivering remarks on behalf of Eng. John Tanui, MBS, the Principal Secretary for ICT and the Digital Economy, issued a blunt assessment today, government efforts to digitize critical records are failing, risking the paralysis of Kenya's broader digital transformation agenda. Speaking to ICT Directors and various stakeholders at a breakfast meeting hosted by the Kenya Association of Records Managers and Archivists (KARMA) at the Serena Hotel, Kerema conveyed the PS's deep concern over the "significantly low" progress made since the Ministry directed State Corporations to adopt paperless systems in March 2023. She emphasized that the core problem identified by the PS is not funding, but a critical deficit in expertise, infrastructure, and a widespread underestimation of the domain's complexity, a complexity interwoven with legal requirements (like the Evidence Act, Data Protection Act, and Access to Information Act), evolving international standards (ISO), technological challenges, and cultural resistance within organizations.

Highlighting a glaring systemic failure on behalf of the PS, Kerema pointed to Section 17(3) of the 2016 Access to Information Act, which mandated all public entities to computerize their records within three years. "That was in 2016!" she stated emphatically, underscoring the long-missed deadline. She detailed the key challenges crippling progress as relayed by PS Tanui, a persistent lack of robust policy frameworks; poor implementation due to wrong software choices or flawed project approaches; inadequate application of ISO best practices; a severe skills gap in digital records management among ICT staff; poor collaboration between ICT and records management professionals; and insufficient change management to address cultural shifts.

Conveying the PS's directive, Kerema placed the responsibility for change firmly on the attending ICT Directors. She urged them to become the driving force by embedding sound records management principles into all digitalization project designs, prioritizing training for their ICT teams on records management intricacies, and fostering essential partnerships with records professionals. Kerema commended KARMA for its pivotal role in developing crucial Records Digitization Guidelines and conveyed the Ministry's commitment, through the ICT Authority, to support entities, continue developing standards, and invest in capacity building. She specifically highlighted KARMA's upcoming annual conference in Mombasa as a vital learning opportunity, announcing the PS's intention for her to attend and strongly urging ICT Directors and their teams to participate to bridge the critical ICT-records management divide.

Kerema concluded by relaying the Principal Secretary's urgent message: "We cannot afford to continue recording false starts every year." She stressed that PS Tanui views "close partnership and collaboration between records managers and ICT professionals [as] non-negotiable" for unlocking Kenya's digital transformation and meeting obligations to citizens. The Ministry's full support was pledged to overcome these hurdles, with successful records digitization framed as the indispensable cornerstone for a truly digital government and economy.

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