New guidelines to steer State's records digitisation initiative

From left- Dr Cleophas Ambira Chairman Kenya Association of Records managers and Archivists (KARMA), Mary Kerema, Secretary ICT, E-Government and Digital Economy and Dr Naftal Chweya Director Records and Management State Department of Culture and Heritage during the 8th KARMA leaders' Conference with the theme "Records Digitization: Getting it Right." July 15, 2025. [Jonah Onyango, Standard]

The turnaround time of government services is expected to reduce with the implementation of end-to-end digitisation of records and processes.

Amid the ongoing digitisation of government services, which now stands at 22,800, the government will also unveil the National Records Digitisation Guidelines to facilitate the process.

The guidelines, which will borrow from what the Kenya Association of Records Managers and Archivists (KARMA) launched in November 2024 for its members, will give further specifications not only on how government records should be digitised but also the formats to be used.

ICT, E-government and Digital Economy Secretary Mary Kerema said yesterday different agencies use dissimilar systems when digitising records, creating confusion.

She gave an example of the format of names where one system records "Kerema Mary" as the format, while the other identifies the same person as "Mary Kerema."

"Data without structure is noise," she said. "We want to standardise naming conventions, classifications, retention and set access control across ministries and organisations."

Ms Kerema noted that while digitisation of services has reduced turnaround time for Kenyans compared to the analogue processes, the waiting period can be reduced further.

She said while the front end of many of these services is digital, the back-end processes are still manual. "When you look at eCitizen, it is front-facing. The citizen will go to eCitizen to apply for a passport, which will take seven days. Why? It is because the back end is still pretty manual. It is semi-automated," she said. "What we are advocating for is the total end-to-end automation and digitisation of the manual records."

Ms Kerema said while the government has done so much on technology, "nobody feels the effect."

This is the reason why the government is also coming up with an 'enterprise architecture' that will look at interoperability and the sharing of information.

She said the government intends to go paperless.

"You can only do that if you fully automate the back end, front end and digitise the records," said Ms Kerema.

KARMA Chairman Dr Cleophas Ambira emphasised the importance of technology in record keeping, which has been amplified in recent times by advances such as hybrid work.

However, the industry also grapples with getting the right talent.

"Part of the challenge we have, not only in Kenya, sometimes you find even the people tasked to manage records are not well equipped from a skill level," he said.

The biggest challenge, he noted, is digital records management.

"How do you ensure organisations invest appropriately? We are working with a number of agencies, Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission, Commission on Administrative Justice, county governments, just to drive this," he said.

Mr Ambira said there are cases where a vendor supplies a school with a school management system, but no one is skilled enough to operate it.

Director, Records Management, State Department of Culture and Heritage Dr Naftali Chweya pointed out the lack of collaboration when it comes to records management.

"In my experience from the government, there are so many systems. We have the technology and human resources. What we don't have is how do we bring together the synergy of what you know and what I know and work towards the common goal," he said.