Govt to roll out nine more Huduma centres by end of June, CS Sicily Kariuki says

The government will roll out nine more Huduma centres across the country before the end of June, Youth and Gender Affairs Cabinet Secretary Sicily Kariuki has said.

This is part of the plan by the Jubilee administration to fully digitise government services across the country.

The Huduma Kenya concept which is a new model in the country seeks to use technology to allow people to access a range of self-service counters linked to government databases.

Ms Kariuki was speaking while on an impromptu tour of the Eldoret Huduma Centre on Wednesday.

She said that currently, there are 38 Huduma centres across the country and that the government would increase them.

“The government will roll out nine more Huduma centres in the country so that we can now have the facilities in each county where all Kenyans will be offered services efficiently and quickly,” said Mrs Kariuki.

STARTED IN 2013

President Uhuru Kenyatta launched the first Huduma centre at GPO, Nairobi in 2013 and described the old bureaucratic system as inefficient, bred corruption, wasted time and cost billions of shillings.

The Head of State raised concern over endless queues in public offices, during which countless hours were wasted.

On Wednesday, the CS said that the government will roll out more centres in sub-counties in the coming years.

“There is need to increase the number of Huduma centres in this country because these facilities serve at least 30,000 customers daily.

“More so, we have 45 government services under one roof at the centres with a turnaround time of 10 minutes,” added Mrs Kariuki.

Ms Kariuki said that Huduma centre concept being new in the country, there was need to keep on training the staff for efficient public service delivery.

“As a government, we shall keep on training our staff working in these facilities especially in terms of customer care so that we can be at the top in terms of excellence in service delivery to the public,” said Mrs Kariuki.

SERVICES OFFERED

Some of the services offered at Huduma centres include renewal of drivers’ licences, duplicate national identity cards, National Social Security Fund (NSSF) and National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) registration and claims, HELB student loan application and repayments, registration of welfare groups, issuance of police abstracts, single business permits and stamp duty assessment and payments, among others.

At the same time, the CS indicated that she had ordered for a report from the centre’s manager Paul Papa on why some staff were working without uniform and the high rate of absenteeism.

“I have made an impromptu visit here to see how the systems are working so that we can know how to address the challenges our staff and the public face while seeking services at the facility.

“I have noted that most of our staff don’t have uniform while some of them are absent,” she said.

NYS

Earlier in the day, the CS re-launched an NYS training camp and road construction at Chekalini in Lugari Constituency.

She was accompanied by Lugari MP Ayub Savula and NYS Senior Deputy Director General Sam Michuki, among others.

According to Ms Kariuki, the government seeks to increase the NYS centres across the country.

“Currently, there are in 72 NYS centres with 76,000 youths already enrolled in the programmes.

“We are now re-launching these programmes and come July we shall start rolling out new ones across the country,” she said.

Mr Savula called on all leaders to support the programme saying it will go a long way in improving the livelihoods of the Kenyan youth.

“As leaders, despite our different political affiliations, we should support these programmes because the youth are the drivers of our economy.

“We should empower them moving forward,” said Mr Savula.