Managing Records in Networked Environments in Kenya’s Public Sector Organisations: A Literature Review

Abstract

This paper presents the results of an empirical and theoretical literature review on managing records in networked environments in Kenya’s public sector organisations. Three objectives are addressed, namely, to examine the legislative and regulatory framework for managing digital records in Kenya’s public sector organisations, to establish the technological framework for managing digital records, and to find out the capacity of the human resources managing the digital records. The results indicated that the Kenyan legal framework for records management is forward-thinking in a number of ways. In particular, the Kenyan Information and Communications Act, 2009, provides explicit consideration of electronic records and transactions, including providing for the legal validity of such records. However, the reviewed literature indicated that the key legislation governing records management in the country had some weaknesses. Further, the results showed that several public sector organisations had deployed different applications and systems to manage their digital records. It was however not clear whether emerging technologies such as cloud computing had been employed. Furthermore, the review unearthed several human resource-related challenges facing the sector. The paper therefore concludes that Kenya’s public sector has made its first steps in the management of records in networked environments but still contends with a myriad of challenges. As a way forward, the paper recommends the following: the amendment of key legislation, fast-tracking the development and implementation of a National Records Management Policy, and hiring trained staff and/or retraining the staff charged with the responsibility of managing public sector records.