How Can Digitization and Artificial Intelligence Enhance Service Delivery in Kenya's Marginalized Units to Combat Corruption and Foster Development?

Kenya's arid and semi-arid marginalized counties, including Turkana, Mandera, Wajir, Garissa, Samburu, Marsabit, and Tana River, continue to experience the compounded effects of historical neglect, weak public infrastructure, and endemic corruption that together undermine equitable service delivery. This paper examines how digitization and artificial intelligence (AI) can strengthen service delivery, curb corruption, and foster inclusive development in these historically underserved regions. Drawing on peer-reviewed literature, government policy documents, and recent empirical studies, the paper situates Kenya's digitization agendaanchored in the Kenya National Digital Master Plan 2022-2032, the Huduma Kenya and e-Citizen platforms, the Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS), and the National Artificial Intelligence Strategy 2025-2030-within the country's broader governance and anti-corruption reform trajectory. It argues that while digitization has demonstrated measurable gains in reducing opportunities for petty corruption and improving administrative efficiency, its benefits remain unevenly distributed, with marginalized counties experiencing persistent digital exclusion, weak connectivity, and elevated risk of exclusion from digital identity and welfare systems. The paper further considers the dual-use character of AI as both a tool for detecting and deterring corruption and a potential source of new governance risks, including opacity, centralization of administrative discretion, and data protection harms. It concludes with policy recommendations emphasizing infrastructure equity, rights-based digital identity reform, human-centred and explainable AI design, and strengthened institutional capacity as prerequisites for digitization and AI to meaningfully advance transparency and development in Kenya's margins.