Transparent Crisis Communication and Brand Trust among Kenyan E-Commerce Consumers: Responsible Consumption (SDG 12) and Strong Institutions (SDG 16)

Kenya’s e-commerce sector, estimated at about 762 million United States dollars in revenue in 2024 with growth of 15 to 20 percent, depends on consumer trust that delivery failures and data breaches can undermine, yet crisis communication has not been studied in this sector, a concern for responsible consumption (SDG 12) and accountable institutions (SDG 16). The study examines how transparent crisis communication relates to brand trust among e-commerce consumers, with reference to Kenya. The study employs a structured narrative synthesis of 22 secondary sources on crisis communication, e-commerce trust and brand trust, published mainly between 1997 and 2026, together with Kenyan market and regulatory sources, organised around Situational Crisis Communication Theory, Image Repair Theory and multidimensional trust theory. The results show that accommodative and transparent responses are consistently favoured as attributed responsibility increases, that e-commerce trust comprises four dimensions, competence, benevolence, integrity and structural assurance, and that Kenyan studies, including a survey of 310 online shoppers of one platform, link security communication and transparent policy to trust, that high mobile-money penetration is described as a facilitator of online commerce, while projected annual revenue growth of 16.4 percent implies many shoppers with limited transaction history. No Kenyan test of crisis transparency was identified among the 22 sources. The findings of this study suggest that credible transparency strengthens trust through perceived integrity and benevolence, that the effect is stronger among consumers with limited transaction history, and that none of the four propositions has a direct Kenyan test. JEL Classification Codes: M31; M37; L81; O33.