Nairobi-area respondents told Safaricom alone built a county portal trusted government less
MIT Governance Lab and Busara found crediting Safaricom alone for a Kenyan county portal lowered trust in government in a survey of more than 11,000 people. That group was keener to use the portal, but a joint credit did not lift trust above the government-alone level.
The Scientist · Science desk
47 county governments partnered with Safaricom on My County Hub. Those told Safaricom alone was responsible were keener to use it but trusted government less than the government-alone group. Partnership-group trust was no higher than that group's. Trust rose overall after hearing of it.
- Who has to decide decision 47 county governments Partnered with Safaricom to create My County Hub for emergency services, permits and parking, claim 5
- Who's exposed exposure Safaricom-alone group Expressed greater willingness to use the portal and more interest in learning more about it, claim 12
- Who's exposed exposure Safaricom-alone group Had lower trust in government afterward than people told the government alone made the portal, claim 13
- Who's exposed exposure Partnership group Did not come to trust government more than people told the government alone was responsible, claim 10
- Who's exposed exposure Survey respondents overall Expressed more trust in government after being told about My County Hub, claim 9
| Who | How | Kind | Claim |
|---|---|---|---|
| 47 county governments | Partnered with Safaricom to create My County Hub for emergency services, permits and parking | decision | 5 |
| Safaricom-alone group | Expressed greater willingness to use the portal and more interest in learning more about it | exposure | 12 |
| Safaricom-alone group | Had lower trust in government afterward than people told the government alone made the portal | exposure | 13 |
| Partnership group | Did not come to trust government more than people told the government alone was responsible | exposure | 10 |
| Survey respondents overall | Expressed more trust in government after being told about My County Hub | exposure | 9 |
What happened
- Kenya's 47 county governments partnered with Safaricom, which the source calls highly trusted, to build My County Hub for emergency requests, permits and parking.
- The researchers had predicted that the joint framing would raise trust, with respondents' trust in Safaricom passing to the government partner.
- Baseline trust is low: a 2023 survey found only 43% of people in Kenya trusted the government.
Why it matters
- Who has to decide decision A county presenting the portal has to weigh short-term interest in use against trust, since the company-only framing raised the first and lowered the second.
- What it limits constraint Trust in Safaricom did not pass to the county governments, so a partnership chosen mainly to borrow the company's standing had no support in this sample.
- What doesn't add up contradiction Trust in government rose overall after respondents heard about the portal, so the penalty attaches to the credit line and the portal itself did not drag trust down.
The summary line on this study says that highlighting the company's role increased willingness to use the portal but hurt trust in government [2]. In the detail, the trust penalty belongs to the group told that Safaricom alone was responsible, and it is measured against the group told that the government alone was [13]. For the joint framing, the reported result is that trust did not rise above the government-alone level [10].
Respondents gave their trust in the county government before and after receiving the information, so each person has a before reading to compare with [7]. The effect of naming the company appears in the difference between the framing groups.
The authors' explanation for the missing transfer is about prior beliefs. Trust sometimes passes from one party to another when people hold weak beliefs about the less-trusted one, but people tend to have strong beliefs about government, which could make their opinions harder to sway [11]. For the company-only group, the write-up offers a separate possible reason: respondents may have viewed Safaricom as carrying out the government's duties [14]. That reading would lower their faith in the government's competency [14].
The outcomes that rose in the company-only group were stated willingness to use the portal and interest in learning more about it [12]. The summary reports no measure of actual portal use. Trust was read around a single briefing [7], while the researchers' conclusion is about the long term: emphasizing the role of companies could encourage use in the short term and erode confidence in government later [15]. The sample is online respondents in and around Nairobi [2][6].
We think the supportable claim is narrower than a general trade-off for public-private digitization. It covers company-only credit, in one online sample around Nairobi, measured right after a briefing. Whether it holds once people use the portal is not something this survey can show.
What to watch
- Whether trust in county government is measured after people actually use My County Hub, since the long-term erosion claim rests on an inference from a single briefing.
- Whether the joint-framing result repeats with a different partner or where beliefs about government are weaker, the condition the authors give for trust transfer.
- Whether the full paper in Government Information Quarterly reports willingness to use for the joint-credit group, which the summary does not.
Clarity's read
What the record supports and how the coverage leans. The claims behind it follow.
Reality
- Evidence58
- Adoption
- Insufficient
- Hype gap+10
- Incentives
- Insufficient
- Confidence55
Claim ledger
Ranked by verification strength, evidence, and original report placement.
- [1]
New research from the MIT Governance Lab and the behavioral science research organization Busara examines how government partnerships with trusted private organizations can shape public trust in government.
- [2]
A survey of people in and around Nairobi found that highlighting the role of the telecommunications company increased people's willingness to use the county online public service portal, but hurt their trust in government.
- [3]
The results were published in the September issue of the journal Government Information Quarterly.
- [4]
In Kenya, a 2023 survey found that only 43% of people trusted the government.
- [5]
Kenya's 47 county governments partnered with Safaricom, a highly trusted telecommunications company, to create an online portal called My County Hub, which aims to let people request government emergency services, pay for business permits and parking, and receive government information.
- [6]
Researchers told more than 11,000 online survey participants how they could access My County Hub and some of its services; some were told the county government and Safaricom were both responsible, others the government alone or the company alone.
- [7]
The survey asked people about their trust in the county government before and after they received the information about the portal.
- [8]
The researchers hypothesized that people told the portal was a public-private collaboration would have more trust at the end of the survey, with trust in Safaricom transferring to the government partner.
- [9]
Overall, people expressed more trust in government after being told about My County Hub, suggesting digitization itself could be tied to increasing trust.
- [10]
People who were told about the partnership did not come to trust the government more than those who were told the government alone was responsible.
- [11]
Trust sometimes transfers in settings where people don't have strong beliefs about the untrusted group, but people tend to have strong beliefs about government, which could make it harder to sway their opinions.
- [12]
People who were told Safaricom alone was responsible for the portal expressed a greater willingness to use it and more interest in learning more about it.
- [13]
Relative to people who were told the government alone made the portal, the people in the Safaricom-alone group had lower levels of trust in government afterward.
- [14]
The lower trust in the Safaricom-alone group could be because people viewed Safaricom as doing the work of the government, which could lower their faith in the government's competency.
- [15]
The results suggest that emphasizing the role companies play in developing digital services could encourage people to use them in the short term but could erode confidence in government in the long term.
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Sources
1 independent publisher whose own reporting we read for this story.
- phys.orgBuilding trust in governments through digital platforms
1 article · October 15, 2026
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