Abstract:

Technologies of E-Government have increasingly become one of the alternatives to enable governance at the local levels. The current governance model has largely been influenced by the management paradigm of New Public Management (NPM) since the mid 1980s. The argument is that NPM has now found a ‘voice’ with the emergence of the E-Government. E-Government as a result of its technologies is becoming more ubiquitous, and in the process, changing the concept of governance.  This situation is especially poignant in developing countries where there are increasing calls to improve governance to achieve a better life for their citizens. This study seeks to investigate managerial processes involved in the adoption of E-Government at the local levels. The consideration of local councils is the interface they provide for use of any E-Government applications adopted. This was a qualitative study based in one of the local councils in Kenya. The study relied on secondary data as well as interviews of various stakeholders involved in the adoption process. The theoretical base for this research was interpretive in nature and borrowed from a number of theoretical lenses. The results indicated to a large extent that adoption processes are largely at a very nascent stage in which actors are involved in 'sense making' activities. Notable activities coalesce around interpretation, legitimization and mobilization of resources for the processes. In addition, social exclusion is a bigger challenge as the Government grapples with how to make services available to various population groups.