Some countries have developed their national artificial intelligence strategies (NAISs) while others have formed task forces to develop them. This study reviewed elements and concepts required to develop NAIS, related science, technology and innovation (STI) strategies, policies and manifestos. Some of these elements and concepts apply to both developing and developed countries while some others are specific to one of them. STI elements and concepts apply to artificial intelligence strategies since AI technology is a specialization of STI technologies. The concepts and elements identified by this study can aid strategy creators by providing important insights for creating NAISs. For instance, catch-up strategies based on learning from a country with similar past technology, catch-up successes, and others who have created NAISs are a low-cost way for developing and implementing NAISs.

The Coronavirus disease, i.e. (COVID-19) pandemic outbreaks has inevitably lead to a corresponding movement restrictive measure by the members of both central and state government leadership. The current limitation of healthcare systems cannot predict the COVID-19 outbreaks and vaccination drive. The need of the hour is to use Blockchain Technology for the construction of immutable ledger. In this paper a Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence (AI) enabled COVID-19 vaccine tracking system has been proposed. The proposed system is designed using the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), decentralized storage by Inter Planetary File System (IPFS) and implemented using Truffle and Ganache Tool. The smart contract interaction among the entities is developed with Drizzle and the front-end using ReactJS . The performance of the proposed framework has been presented with Keccack 256 transaction hash, the total number of transactions, gas consumed by each contract. Additionally the performance parameters such as latency, throughput, traffic in, out, CPU, and memory utilization of the blockchain framework are also calculated. The artificial neural network (ANN) has been used to classify the vaccination group. Such an attempt is a worthwhile addition to the state of the art as evident from the results presented herein. The proposed framework provides a way for vaccinated members of the community to be tracked and indexed so as to avail the benefits, for example, less restrictive movements nationally, internationally, or simply in their own respective communities. This paper leverages the advantages of Blockchain Technology to obtain a reliable and accurate way to facilitate the entire tracking process.

Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) require the right Organizational Information and Communication Technology Infrastructure (OICTI) to provide them with the essential functionalities to support their business processes. In order to have the right OICTI, MSEs are expected to make huge investments in financial and human resources, to purchase, deploy and maintain Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs). Cloud Computing Services (CCS) avail OICTI, for a fraction of the resources required to own private ICT infrastructure. The purpose of this study was to assess the fit between the MSEs’ OICTI needs and the information processing capabilities of CCS and how this fit influences CCS adoption in the Kenyan MSEs. The research was quantitative in nature, in which, a theory-based model grounded on the task technology fit, organization information processing and technology-organization-environment theories, was developed and validated. Study findings suggest strong correlations between MSEs’ tasks and CCS and between MSEs’ information processing needs and CCS information processing capabilities. Other factors identified as influencing CCS procurement are affordability and the relationship between the CCS providers and the MSEs. The study contributes to the academic literature on technology adoption in MSEs by showing that there exists a multidimensional fit between CCS and MSEs’ OICTI requirements.

Despite the growing popularity of social media among Kenyans, there is limited baseline data on the consumption of these platforms by different Kenyan communities based on demographics such as age, gender, education, income, and geolocation. The study set out to fill this gap through a baseline survey on social media consumption in Kenya. The study used a mixed-method approach, involving a survey of 3,269 respondents and 37 focus group discussions. The social media platforms in use are WhatsApp, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Snapchat. However, the use of social media differs by demographics. Kenyans use social media for entertainment, education, jobs, politics, sports, and social issues. Most Kenyans access social media using phones for 1-3 hours daily. Motivations for using social media include the acquisition of information, entertainment, and social interactions. Most social media users have experienced fake news, cyberbullying, and bombardment with graphic images of sex and advertisements. Kenyans consider social media to be addictive, expensive, and time-wasting.

Kenya has a robust blogger community, with hundreds of active bloggers and a variety of stimulating blogs on politics, agriculture, technology, education, fashion, food, entertainment, sports, and travel. The purpose of this chapter was to explore whether Kenyans participate in online discussions and to determine the role of Kenyan bloggers in online communities. Data was collected through a survey of 3,269 respondents aged between 14 and 55 years and social media mining on Twitter using Network Overview, Discovery and Exploration for Excel (NodeXL) API. Survey data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and cross-tabulation while mined data was analyzed for centrality metrics. The study identified Farmers Trend, Ghafla Kenya, KahawaTungu, and Kachwanya as influential blogs in the Kenyan blogosphere and that most Kenyan women read travel and food and fashion blogs while men mostly read sports and politics blogs. This chapter contributes to a better understanding of the Kenyan blogosphere.

Existing literature shows that even though governments in developing countries have continued in their efforts with reforms and other actions to expand financial access and inclusion among citizens, a segment of the population remains excluded. This comprises of low income and middle-class people who end up relying on informal saving groups for their financial needs. Despite their prevalence and importance, the informal saving groups such as Rotating Saving and Credit Associations (ROSCAs) and Accumulating Savings and Credit Association (ASCAs) continue to face a myriad of challenges with many of them collapsing. The aim of this study is to explore the usage of mobile apps to overcome the challenges faced by the ROSCAs and ASCAs. Agile software methodology was used to develop a robust mobile application for use by informal saving groups. Adoption of mobile apps technologies is important to the informal financial sector and the formal financial sector that is linked to these informal saving groups such as banks and microfinance institutions. The study reveals that the use of mobile apps was a plausible solution to the challenges experienced by the members of the informal savings groups while handling monetary transactions.

Although considerable literature has grown around cyberbullying, there are still only limited studies on this within developing economies, especially African countries. In particular, studies on cyberbullying in Africa have failed to have a direct focus on the prevalence of this phenomenon among students in universities. Not only does cyberbullying have an emotional-social impact, it has ramifications on the learning process as well. This subject remains of utmost relevance within academia, and a number of institutions continue to grapple with its impact. The study reported here is an exploratory investigation of 396 students from one of the private universities within Nairobi, Kenya, which aimed at understanding the prevalence of cyberbullying. The study findings revealed that the highest form of victimization was through the act of deception, in which 75.8% of the respondents indicated someone had lied to them electronically. On the other hand, the highest form of perpetration of cyberbullying was through malice, in which 49.7% of the respondents reported sending a rude message to someone electronically. Further, more male students were more likely to commit acts of cyberbullying compared to their female counterparts. This study confirms the existence of cyberbullying within institutions of higher learning in Kenya, with the possibility of generalizability to other developing economies. The level of prevalence reported in this study appears slightly high in comparison to a majority of the findings from the developed economies. Consequently, we submit that it is imperative that educational systems in Africa and other developing economies put in frameworks to deal with the emerging reality of cyberbullying within institutions of higher learning. Such frameworks should facilitate the implementation of useful strategies to help victims of cyberbullying, and at the same, time offer deterrents to the perpetration of cyberbullying.

While several studies have indicated the critical role played by a country's ability to exploit knowledge as an economic resource, very few studies can be traced to understanding the practices of County Government in exploiting knowledge especially in Africa. The purpose of this study was to investigate the current knowledge management practices and technological solutions employed by County Governments in Kenya to support knowledge management. Based on interviews with senior and junior County officials and qualitative data analysis, the study findings revealed that there were no systematic knowledge management practices in existence within the surveyed County Governments. The few knowledge management practices identified were isolated, informal and uncoordinated; they were neither documented nor communicated. Furthermore, the existing policy frameworks to support knowledge management practices were inadequate. The study also revealed scarcity of relevant technological solutions tailored to support knowledge management practices. This research provides an advancing understanding of the prevailing local challenges hindering effective utilization of knowledge management practices and systems.

Purpose While several studies have indicated the critical role played by the ability of countries to exploit knowledge as an economic resource, it would appear that there have been very few studies conducted on understanding the practices adopted by governments in relation to exploring knowledge, particularly in Africa. The purpose of this study is to investigate the prevailing knowledge management practices and technological solutions used by governments to support knowledge management. Design/methodology/approach To address the research objective of this study, semi-structured interviews and document analysis were used. The interviews were conducted with both senior and junior county officials from five counties in Kenya, with a total of 31 county officials participating. Further, various county documents were analysed both to seek convergence and corroborate the interview findings. Findings The study findings revealed that no systematic knowledge management practices existed in the county governments in Kenya, which were investigated. On the few occasions that the study did find evidence of knowledge management practices, these practices were isolated, informal, uncoordinated and rarely documented and/or communicated. Furthermore, the study found that there were inadequate policy frameworks in place to support knowledge management practices. The study also revealed a scarcity of relevant technological solutions tailored to support knowledge management practices. Research limitations/implications It was, thus, hoped that this research would promote an understanding of the prevailing local circumstances that hinder the effective utilisation of knowledge management practices and systems. The study recommends that county governments develop the capabilities required for creating and sustaining an enabling knowledge management environment through frameworks and policies that foster knowledge management practices and systems. The findings have practical implications for the way in which county governments in Kenya and other developing countries may improve their knowledge management practices and adopt appropriate technological solutions to support such practices. Originality/value Much of the existing literature on knowledge management is focussed on exploring such practices in large businesses. Studies centred specifically on the analysis of knowledge management practices in county governments in Africa, and how technological solutions may be used to build such practices are conspicuously lacking in the relevant literature.

The 2017-2022 Kenya's Council of Governors strategic plan indicates that there is lack of a structured mechanism for systematic knowledge sharing and organizational learning among the county governments despite the council's effort to share information through statutory annual reports, devolution conferences, and quarterly committee meetings. The intention of this chapter is to assess the challenges faced by the Kenyan county governments in their quest to institutionalize knowledge management practices and to conceptualize a framework that can support continuous sharing of experiences, lessons, and innovations within and among the county governments in Kenya. Theoretical frameworks and models of knowledge management in governance, governments, and e-governments were considered and a novel theoretical framework for successful knowledge management initiatives among regional governments was formulated. The chapter provides recommendations for the council and other policy makers on how to manage knowledge management initiatives, while suggestions for future research directions are given.

Devolved governments such as the county and regional governments around the world have a constitutional responsibility to find sustainable ways through which they can meet material, social, and economic responsibilities of improving the quality of the lives of their citizens by providing high-quality services and decent work for their employees. The 2014-2017 Kenya's Council of Governors strategic plan postulated enactment of a knowledge management strategy where good practices and lessons learnt within any county government should be documented and disseminated in appropriate forums to other counties. However, the 2017-2022 strategic plan indicates that there is lack of a structured mechanism for systematic knowledge sharing and organizational learning among the county governments despite the council's effort to share information through statutory annual reports, devolution conferences and quarterly sectoral committee meetings. But, the 2017-2022 strategic plan envisions a systematic mechanism for sharing experiences among the county governments. The intention of this study was to assess the current knowledge management practices among the county governments in Kenya; to identify, and articulate knowledge management concepts that are useful to the public services sector among devolved governments in developing countries; and to model these practices into a framework that can support continuous sharing of experiences, lessons and innovations within and among the county governments in Kenya. Theoretical frameworks and models of knowledge management in governance, governments and e-governments were considered and a conceptual framework for successful knowledge management initiatives among county and regional governments was formulated. The proposed conceptual framework was evaluated using a focus group discussion with participants drawn from the Council of Governors' Maarifa Center employees. The study proposes a framework to facilitate effective sharing of experiences among county employees, between different county governments and to manage and enhance knowledge management initiatives among the devolved governments. The study results indicate some sporadic nascent knowledge management practices rather than well planned initiatives within the counties. The study provides recommendations for the Council of Governors and other policy makers on how to manage knowledge management initiatives, while suggestions for future research directions for researchers with similar interests are given.

Business collaborations have gained prominence in many domains mediated by information technology platforms. These collaborations, normally referred to as virtual enterprises (VEs) consider varying core competencies of participants. The VEs' dynamic nature requires participants to be dynamically selected and engaged. This requires a flexible systematic approach, lacking in existing literature, to handle varying forms of VEs. This study aims to consider a VE from an enterprise integration viewpoint and to develop an agent-based model that supports the VE's formation and operation phases. This model will provide support to business managers in making decisions efficiently by delegating part of the processes to software agents. An agent-based VE (ABVE) model prototype is developed. Case studies from various domains are used in the demonstration of the model's applicability and possible generalization. After evaluation it is shown that users are motivated to use the model as an effective tool for VE formation and collaborations in diverse domains with an 88.86% acceptance rate.

M-commerce in Kenya has seen tremendous growth over the last few years due to the availability of mobile payments, mobile internet access, and expansion of mobile banking systems. A critical factor to the success of m-commerce is timely delivery of purchased items to the customers’ premises. Timely delivery is highly dependent on the courier’s ability to locate the buyer’s physical location. To do this, the courier requires a reliable physical addressing system. However, like most developing countries, Kenya lacks a National Addressing System to provide properly registered physical identity of buildings, streets, and roads. The study explored the use of GPS in identifying customer’s location as an alternative to named physical addresses. This paper describes the study design and discusses the findings concerning the use of GPS tracking application among six retailers and thirty customers. The study reveals that geolocation can substitute physical addresses in m-commerce home deliveries.

The primary objective of this study is to examine the problem of cyberbullying in institutions of higher learning with particular attention to developing countries by looking at its prevalence in one of the universities within Nairobi in Kenya. In this study, we conduct an exploratory study on 396 students to understand the prevalence of cyberbullying. The study findings revealed that the highest form of victimization was through the act of deception in which 75.8% indicated someone had lied to them electronically. On the other hand, the highest form of perpetration of cyberbullying was through malice in which 49.7% indicated that they had sent a rude message to someone electronically. The level of prevalence reported in this study appears slightly high in comparison to majority of the finding from developed countries. Consequently, we submit that it is imperative that educational systems in Africa and other developing countries put frameworks in place to deal with the emerging reality of cyberbullying within institutions of higher learning.

There are a number of challenges facing the low-income urban communities living in slums in most of the developing countries such as the Mathare slum. Provision of essential public basic services in the Nairobi slums is lower compared to what is offered to the rest of the City. But, services such as the garbage removal also requires participation of the residents for successful service delivery. The objective of this study was to investigate whether use of Facebook, as a Web 2.0 technology, can support the residents of Mathare slum to actively participate in civic environmental initiatives and to foster community activeness towards civic environmental protection. The study employed a mixed methods approach to investigate the problem. This was achieved through a preliminary survey (700 respondents) to collect data on use of Web 2.0 among the residents of Mathare slum, an experiment with 175 residents, who participated in a community civic environmental initiative using Facebook and a survey to measure continuance intentions on use of Web 2.0 technologies for collective community Web 2.0-mediated activities towards protecting the environment among low-income urban communities. The study constructed and successfully tested a model of Web 2.0 use and online environmental protection initiatives. Use of Web 2.0 technologies for environmental protection emerged as a significant predictor of online social capital, community environmental activeness and continuance intentions to participate in environmental initiatives, while perceived cost negatively moderates the relationship between Web 2.0 use and continuance intentions. Implications and recommendations for policy, practice and research are provided.

Aim/Purpose: Significant urban digital divide exists in Nairobi County where low income households lack digital literacy skills and do not have access to the internet. The study was undertaken as an intervention, designed to close the digital divide among low income households in Nairobi by introducing internet access using the domestication framework. Background: Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have the potential to help reduce social inequality and have been hailed as critical to the achievement of the Sustainable Development goals (SDGs). Skills in use of ICTs have also become a prerequisite for almost all forms of employment and in accessing government services, hence, the need for digital inclusion for all. Methodology: In this research study, I employed a mixed methods approach to investigate the problem. This was achieved through a preliminary survey to collect data on the existence of urban digital divide in Nairobi and a contextual analysis of the internet domestication process among the eighteen selected case studies. Contribution: While there have been many studies on digital divide between Africa and the rest of the world, within the African continent, among genders and between rural and urban areas at national levels, there are few studies exploring urban digital divide and especially among the marginalized communities living in the low-income urban areas. Findings: Successful domestication of internet and related technologies was achieved among the selected households, and the households appreciated the benefits of having and using the internet for the first time. A number of factors that impede use of internet among the marginalized communities in Nairobi were also identified. Recommendations for Practitioners: In the study, I found that use of differentiated costs internet services targeting specific demographic groups is possible and that use of such a service could help the marginalized urban communities’ access the internet. Therefore, ISPs should offer special internet access packages for the low-income households. Recommendation for Researchers: In this research study, I found that the urban digital divide in Nairobi is an indication of social economic development problems. Therefore, researchers should carryout studies involving multipronged strategies to address the growing digital divide among the marginalized urban communities. Impact on Society: The absence of an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) inclusion policy is a huge setback to the achievement of the SDGs in Kenya. Digital inclusion policies prioritizing digital literacy training, universal internet access and to elucidate the social-economic benefits of internet access for all Kenyans should be developed. Future Research: Future studies should explore ways of providing affordable mass internet access solutions among the residents of low-income communities and in eliminating the persistence urban digital divide in Kenya.

This study proposes a framework for remote identification and tracking of cattle movement based on wireless sensor networks (WSN), mobile communication, and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The proposed framework can be implemented for tracking cattle movement at the village level and extended to harsh terrain when recovering stolen animals in case of cattle rustling or theft. The system works by identifying and tracking the desired animal location and sending periodic location data at regular intervals to a database as well as availing the specific animal’s current location on demand through the Internet and text messages. The proposed cattle tracking and recovery system (CTRS) consists of a rumen sensor module, a WSN control unit, a Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) gateway, WiMAX base stations, and a data center. Availing timely information about the location of the stolen animals could facilitate quick recovery of the animals while ensuring the safety of the security personnel involved in the recovery process. Speedy recovery of stolen animals also defeats the purpose of cattle rustling as the rustlers do not have the chance to use the animals for their intended purposes. The proposed system was tested through a MATLAB simulation experiment.

To fully leverage the availability of the internet services in Kenya, all the citizens need to be able to access and use the intemet and related services. The availability of 4G networks, cyber cafes and fiber connectivity in most residential areas of Nairobi has allowed many Nairobi residents to be part of its information-based society. But, as with the other existing social inequalities in Nairobi, many people residing in the city's low-income areas lack access to the internet. This has a negative impact on the residents' prospects as the governments and businesses are increasingly delivering their services online. Using a pre-tested questionnaire, data were collected from five hundred and fifty respondents on their intemet access and digital literacy skills among the residents of the Mathare Slum. From the survey, the study found existence of limited digital literacy skills and lack of intemet access among the residents of the Mathare Slum. The study then used the Community Technology Centers (CTCs) intervention approach to narrowing the digital divide by setting up a CTC in the Mathare Slum to offer free community internet access and digital literacy skills training. Eight cohorts, each of eighteen residents, were offered free digital literacy training for five weeks and free unlimited intemet access for four months. The study then evaluated the trainees' intemet usage continuance intentions after four months of continued use of the internet at the CTC. The results indicate that perceived enjoyment, perceived usefulness, intemet self-efficacy, and confirmation of expectations all significantly influence the participants' satisfaction with use of the internet. The results also show that continuance intentions of the participants from low income household to continue using intemet beyond the CTC can be predicted by perceived service cost, satisfaction, intemet self-efficacy and perceived usefulness. The study demonstrates the effectiveness of CTCs as an intervention approach and a replicable model that can be used to bridge the urban digital divide among low income urban communities for the development of an all-inclusive information-based society. Implications and recommendations for policy, practice and research are provided.

With most households in rural Kenya dependent on meagre wages from manual labor, the task of balancing immediate family needs with long-term financial goals is usually a difficult task, which in most cases leave families with minimal or no savings. This paper articulates a study to investigate the potential of using mobile money accounts as a money management platform that can help promote a savings culture as well as establish and nurture financial discipline among poor households in Kenya. Based on the premises that 41% of Kenyans do not save regularly because they do not have "enough money to live on let alone save for a rainy day", the study examined innovative ways in which poor households could use mobile money accounts as a tool for financial inclusion, achieving household financial security, and enhancing family role performance. The study took place in Nairobi's Mathare slum. It aimed to understand, in depth, mobile money savings accounts usage among poor households. Key informants were low income traders, who earns a daily income of less than two dollars ( about 200 Kenya Shillings). Data was collected using a questionnaire, informal conversations and contextual interviews and supplemented by in-depth interviews with managers from a leading mobile money service provider and the mobile money provider commercial banks. The study results indicates that lack of awareness on the available and affordable mobile money savings products, low interest rates on mobile money fixed deposit savings accounts and high transaction costs when making mobile money payments impacts negatively on mobile money fixed deposit savings accounts usage while availability of microcredit on mobile money savings accounts has a positive effect on the usage. The study provides policy and technology design recommendations that could aid in mobile money lock savings accounts acceptance.