Around the world public trust in government has been falling, especially in Latin America, North America and Africa. Low trust reduces compliance with laws, tax collection, voter turnout and public health responses. A 2023 Kenyan survey found only 43% of respondents trusted the government, with corruption, poor services and flawed elections cited as reasons. At the same time Kenya is a pioneer in digital governance; mobile money and the eCitizen platform already deliver many services online. Recently the 47 county governments partnered with the local telecom giant Safaricom to launch an online portal called My County Hub, offering emergency requests, fee payments, information updates and more. Researchers surveyed over 11,000 online participants, telling different groups who was responsible for the portal: a public‑private partnership, the government alone, or Safaricom alone, and measured trust in the county government before and after. The data show that simply learning about My County Hub raised trust in government, suggesting digitisation can have a positive effect. However, explicitly crediting the partnership did not increase trust further, likely because strong pre‑existing views about government limit trust transfer. In contrast, participants told that Safaricom alone built the portal were more willing to use it but reported lower trust in government afterward, perhaps because they perceived the private firm as performing a core government function. A deeper look revealed that respondents who initially trusted both the government and Safaricom still increased trust after seeing the partnership, whereas those who trusted Safaricom but distrusted the government experienced a drop in trust when the portal was credited to Safaricom alone. The findings suggest that highlighting a company’s role can boost short‑term adoption of digital services but may erode long‑term confidence in government. Future work could explore other ways to build trust among citizens who are skeptical of the state.
Review