Implementing e-Government Services in East Africa : Assessing Status through Content Analysis of Government Websites

A content analysis study was conducted to determine the status of government websites of three East African countries Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda using establishment year, visibility and usability attributes. The results were matched with a four-stage model of e-Government growth based on the status of websites from simple to sophisticated features. The study identified 98 government websites including 33 for Kenya, 37 for Tanzania and 28 for Uganda. More than 83% of the identified websites were established between 2000 and 2003 and their creators are still undergoing the learning experience. The website visibility test ranged from 27% to 40% and the average for three countries was 32%. Usability analysis revealed more interactivity features for Tanzanian and Ugandan websites than Kenyan websites. The study concludes that all of the East African websites are at the first and second stages of the website development and corresponding e-Government services. One of the theoretical and practical implications of the study is a move toward a standardized use of the website evaluation attributes among various researchers to gauge stages of e-Government implementation. These attributes can also serve as indicators for individual governments to strive toward advanced stages of eGovernment implementation.