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The government will roll-out construction of Huduma Centres in all the 290 sub counties under the Huduma Kenya Digitalisation plan.

Announcing the plan, Public Service, Gender and Affirmative Action Cabinet Secretary Aisha Jumwa said the move is aimed at bolstering government service delivery by bringing them closer to wananchi.

“It will save millions of shillings citizens use to access Huduma Centres as they are located at only County Headquarters with the exception of Nairobi and Kajiado counties that have five and two centres respectively,” Jumwa said.

The CS spoke during the closing of the first Annual Huduma Centre Managers Conference at Pride Inn Flamingo Beach Resort in Mombasa where she hinted at collaborating with NG-CDF to explore the possibility of funding the construction of the sub-county Huduma Centres.

Noting that Public Service delivery is transforming from manual to digital, the CS said it is imperative for Huduma Kenya fraternity to come together and map how to reposition themselves and embrace the Digital Era.

Human interaction

According to Jumwa, Huduma Kenya being a trusted interface between the citizens and government services, there is every reason that Huduma Kenya finds its definite place in taking these digital services to the people.

She, at the same time, allayed fears of any possibility of the digitalization process phasing out the need for human interaction in service delivery and therefore, leading to mass job losses.
Jumwa instead assured the centre managers of their job security as more digitally disadvantaged Kenyans will need their services.

“We recognize that many digitally disadvantaged persons and persons with disabilities need support and, Huduma Kenya having already established structures that interface with Kenyans is better placed to take these digital services to the people.

“I am informed that wananchi have started streaming in Huduma Centres asking for support on services uploaded on e-citizen. My call to you is to ensure that your teams fully understand all services uploaded on the E-citizen platform to enable you to support any citizen who visits the Huduma Centres.

“This is besides your normal Huduma services that you continue to support including those that are not yet digitized and those that cannot be fully digitalized and therefore require in-person assistance,” she noted.