Abstract
Maturity models have existed as a concept for at least two decades. This chapter demonstrates the use of two models to assess the institutional readiness for open government at the Kenyan judiciary. Kenya has gone through a series of constitutional reforms, the latest being the promulgation of a new constitution in 2010 whose key pillar is continuous engagement with citizens, which led to a launch of the Kenya Open Data Initiative in 2011. In response to this initiative, the judiciary launched its transformation framework in 2012 with an aim of inculcating a culture of openness. Against this background, a study was undertaken on records-management readiness for open government in the Kenyan judiciary. This chapter reports some of its findings, specifically the status of open-government readiness at the judiciary, assessed using the IRMT E-Readiness Tool and the open government implementation model (OGIM). The chapter describes the methodology used, discusses the findings, and states a conclusion as well as recommendations.
TopIntroduction
Maturity models have existed as a concept for at least two decades. Their roots lie in the field of quality management, to which Crosby’s Quality Management Maturity Grid attests as one of the earliest forms of maturity model (Fraser, Moultrie, & Gregory, 2002). Typically, a maturity model consists of a sequence of maturity levels for a class of objects such as organizations or processes (Becker, Knackstedt, & Pöppelbuß, 2009). Becker et al. (2009) opine that a maturity model represents an anticipated, desired, or typical evolutionary path these objects follow in discrete stages, where the bottom stage depicts an initial state and the highest stage represents total maturity. As such, maturity models assess situations to guide improvement initiatives and to control progress (Röglinger, Pöppelbuß, & Becker; 2012).
Maturity models arise on the premise that organizations do not move from zero capability to optimum capability instantaneously, but rather progress along a journey of maturity (Murray & Ward, 2007, p.5). Maseh and Katuu (2017) point out that the number of levels for each model may vary from three to seven, as illustrated in Table 1.
Table 1. Showing number of levels in different maturity models
| Maturity Model | Number of Levels |
| Capability Immaturity Model (Finkelstein, 1992) | 3 levels |
Capability Maturity Model (Kana and Karni, 2004)
Gartner Security Process Maturity Model
(van Mien, 2001) | 4 levels |
Enterprise Content Management Maturity Model (Katuu, 2018; Real Story Group and DAM Foundation, 2014)
Records Management Capacity Assessment System (Griffin, 2004; Katuu, 2016a) | 5 levels |
| General Practice Information Maturity Model (Gillies, 2000) General Practitioner Information System measurement model (Saleh and Alshawi, 2005) | 6 levels |
| Gartner’s Infrastructure Maturity Model (Bittman, 2004) | 7 levels |
Source: (Maseh & Katuu, 2017, p. 80)
Key Terms in this Chapter
Records Management: A managerial function concerned with the control of records from creation to disposition that ensures that efficient, effective and economical handling of organizational records.
County Government: Lower level government in the Kenyan system of devolved system of government.
Open Government: Facilitating free access to government information and/or information held by government agencies so that citizens can be empowered to participate in the development of a nation.
E-Records Readiness: Demonstrable capacity of an organization or agency to manage e-records measured in terms of the availability of infrastructure such as policies, human and financial resources, among others.
E-Records: Documented information created or received by an individual, organization or agency in the course of its business transaction using various information and communication technologies.
Records: Documented information regardless of format that is created or received by an individual, organization or agency in the course of its business transaction.
Devolution: Decentralization of government involving the transfer of authority and resources to sub-national tiers of government like the counties in the Kenyan system.
National Government: Central government that oversees the running of a government at its highest level in a situation where there is more than one tier of government like the Kenyan scenario.