Huduma2107aDAILY NATION By SICILY KARIUKI

Monday November 6, 2017

Huduma Mobile Outreach Programme, popularly known as Huduma Mashinani, has been nominated for an international award by the African Association for Public Administration and Management.

Whether it brings home the overall trophy as it has done in the past or not, this is a demonstration of the determination to ensure best practices locally and internationally.

To sustain its leadership in public service provision, Huduma Kenya Programme must continuously innovate.

SERVICE INTEGRATION

It must develop and establish multiple one-stop integrated service delivery platforms to provide government services to citizens from all walks of life.

The objective is to increase accessibility, speed, quality, and convenience, and reduce the cost of public services.

Six one-stop shop platforms for service delivery have been developed.

They include the 45 physical Huduma Centres in various parts of the country, providing 66 different services.

These include the Huduma Contact Centre, Huduma Smart Service and Payment Card, eHuduma portal for multiple government services, Huduma Mobile Life App and Huduma Mobile Outreach Services.

MOBILE OUTREACH

Huduma Mashinani (service at the grassroots) is an innovation to cater for Kenyans who cannot access a Huduma Centre at their county headquarters.

Each centre carries out one mobile outreach in each sub-county every month.

The services provided include birth registration, issuance of national identity cards, registration for health insurance, National Social Security Services, registration for the disbursement of funds to youth, women and person living with disabilities, basic health services and Kenya Revenue Authority services.
In the past two months, 30,000 people, who would otherwise struggle to reach a Huduma Centre, have received Huduma Mashinani services.

POLITICAL GOODWILL

This programme reaches more people at the grassroots at a cheaper cost than having to set up a centre in each sub-county.

Its success can be credited to the political goodwill provided by President Uhuru Kenyatta, popularity, good management at Huduma Kenya Programme and its dedicated staff, and public confidence.

This year, the programme was put to its utmost test during the Public Service Week when staff carried out free public services.

They attended to street boys infested with jiggers, planted trees in public institutions, assisted pupils with disability, cleaned up towns and provided books to prisoners sitting national exams.

CUSTOMER SERVICE

In open forums, people asked questions about services offered, which include pensions, National Hospital Insurance Fund and the National Social Security Fund.

The new government approach adopts best practices and customer service standards from the private sector.

Forty-five Huduma Centres are fully operational in 41 of the 47 counties.

Centres are being put up in the remaining six counties.

The 45 centres serve 45,000 people daily and a total of 14 million to date.

AWARDS
Huduma won the 2015 United Nations Public Service Awards (UNPSA), the most prestigious international recognition of excellence in public service.

It has been benchmarking against world-class best practice. It won awards locally and globally in 2014/2015:

•UN Public Service Award in the category Improving the Delivery of Public Services – June 2015

•African Public Service Award in the Special Recognition category – June 2015

•Africa in Innovative Management of Public Service awards by the African Association for Public Administration and Management-February 2015

•Customer Service Excellence in Public Sector award by the Institute of Customer Service Kenya

•And best in use of ICT in the Public Service award by the Information Communication Technology Association of Kenya.