The role of knowledge management in enhancing government service-delivery in Kenya

Abstract

This article explores the role that knowledge management (KM) can play to support governance, performance effectiveness, and service delivery in government agencies in Kenya. It further addresses the challenges and problems which act as impediments to introducing KM and engendering a knowledge society. A major factor impeding the effective introduction of knowledge management practices is that the Kenyan civil service is particularly embedded in bureaucracy and very few incentives are provided to encourage civil servants to generate, distribute and share knowledge and information. Many employees in the Kenyan civil service are traditional career civil servants, who cannot envisage and appreciate the potential of knowledge management and the benefits of knowledge leveraging. They are also wary of sharing knowledge, as they think that by hoarding knowledge they enhance their value and competitiveness. The paper is based on data derived from the literature that was integrated with results obtained from a study conducted by Ondari-Okemwa (2006) for a PhD research project.