Parliament of Kenya. Kenya's August House outperforms both houses of Burundi's legislature on digital governance, user support in parliament and digital content.
Business and Technology Reporter in Nairobi, Kenya
Nation Media Group
The Kenyan Parliament has been found to be less digitally mature than Burundi’s, despite Nairobi’s more advanced information and communication technology industry, pointing to lower investment in infrastructure and skills in ICT by the August house.
On a scale of one to 10, Kenya’s bicameral Parliament is rated at 4 in the Inter-Parliamentary Union’s (IPU) latest Digital Maturity Index, while Burundi is rated at 5 and its Senate at 7, beating Kenya and Tanzania, which are richer and generally more technologically advanced countries.
The index measures legislative bodies’ digital preparedness based on technology infrastructure within the parliaments, supporting users, and parliamentary systems, digital governance and management, digital content and publishing, and public engagement.
Infrastructure assesses how reliable and secure things such as the internet connection, Wi-Fi, power, and ICT staff are within the Parliament buildings, while parliamentary systems look at how the legislative buildings use technology to streamline processes and activities within parliament such as voting.
The supporting users pillar, queries whether the parliaments provide members and staff with required hardware and software for digital use.
The index also considers how accessible the legislators’ digital content are even to differently-enabled users, and how well they utilise tech to engage with the public.
Burundi’s lower house beat’s the Kenyan parliament in infrastructure and public engagement, while its Senate performs better in infrastructure, parliamentary systems and public engagement.
Kenya’s August house is better than both houses of the Burundian legislature at digital governance, supporting users in Parliament, and digital content and publishing.
Generally, according to the survey done once every four years, parliaments from poorer countries are mostly less digital prepared than those from richer countries, but Burundi’s legislators defy the odds.
“The stark and persistent digital divide between parliaments points to a significant gap in technology adoption and implementation, between legislatures in countries at different income levels,” IPU said in a report.
“Almost two thirds of parliaments in low-income countries (63 percent) and just over half of those in lower-middle-income countries (52 percent) rank among the lowest 30 for digital maturity.”
Several studies put Kenya’s general digital quality of life and technological advancements way ahead of Burundi’s, as is its economy in terms of annual domestic output.
For instance, only 11.5 percent of Burundi’s population have access to the internet, while in Kenya 40.8 percent have internet access, according to the July 2024 Global Digital Report by internet monitoring firm Meltwater.
Kenya’s internet speed averages at 28 megabytes per second, more than five times higher than Burundi’s, which is currently at about 5 Mbps (megabytes per second), pointing to better digital infrastructure in Nairobi.
The tech industry in Kenya is also more robust than Burundi’s, with several tech multinationals including Google, Microsoft, and Amazon, running their East Africa operations from Nairobi, a show of confidence on the country’s digital infrastructure.
Tech entrepreneurship is also booming in Kenya more than in Burundi, as Kenyan startups are among the leading attractors of investor funding on the continent, signifying a more vibrant and innovative startup scene.
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