The Huduma Kenya Programme, implemented by the Ministry of Devolution and Planning, has just been declared this year’s winner of the United Nations Public Service Award in improving delivery of public services.
This is the second time this year the centres have won a coveted international award. They recently won the coveted African Association of Public Administration and Management (AAPAM) Gold Medal Award in Innovation Management 2015.
The programme has also won regional and local awards since inception. That means the transformational leadership adopted by the Jubilee government has achieved one major delivery in under two years of its administration – the establishment of the Huduma Kenya Centres.
The current roll-out of Huduma Kenya Centres across the country defines how transformational leadership has led to the transformation of Government service delivery in ways that put Kenya ahead of some developed and other developing nations.
In Huduma Kenya services, President Uhuru Kenyatta has transformed the old domineering, scowling and extortionate disservice with a growl and a snarl of previous administrations since Independence into prompt and seamless service with a smile.
It is a journey towards the rapid transformation of this nation, a springboard and key pillar in the efficient and effective provision of various public services.
The Huduma concept and its roll-out are the greatest manifestation in modern Kenyan history of Government’s obligation to provide quality public services and information – as a fundamental and constitutional right of all Kenyans. No other administration since Independence in 1963 has taken the service delivery ethos so seriously and with such transformational passion and commitment.
President Uhuru’s seems focused on making drastic changes to the way public institutions operate and deliver services to the people. Apart from the introduction of the Huduma Kenya concept, whose main focus is to consolidate various public service delivery arms and systems into one solid structure for efficiency and effectiveness, there are also various reforms and adjustments that have already been effected or are being introduced into the public service.
Inefficiency, corruption and bureaucracy, especially within the public service, have been among the most serious challenges that have contributed to stagnation of Kenya’s socio-economic advancement over the years.
With a bloated, inefficient and disjointed public service structure, it has been difficult for any ordinary person, Kenyan or foreigner, to receive the kind of services required from the Government.
Both local and foreign investments have been hindered or slowed down by the cumbersome bureaucratic requirements from different government agencies before licences or approvals were obtained.
To many Kenyans, obtaining even some of the most basic and simple services such as national identification card (ID) or a trading licence for a small business had become impossible and often led to frustrations.
In most cases, there were different offices, sections, departments and ministries dealing with particular aspects of obtaining an ID or issuance of birth certificates.
Through the drastic reduction and eventual elimination of the bureaucratic and corruption structures that have retarded this nation’s socio-economic development, the Jubilee Government is on the verge of transforming Kenya into a fast-growing economy that will be an example to developing and developed countries.
Huduma Kenya is the concept and structure that has been established under the Ministry of Devolution and Planning headed by Cabinet Secretary Anne Waiguru to eliminate much of the bureaucratic delays and graft in the provision of a large number of public services.
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Under the devolved system of governance with 47 county structures, the national government has to ensure its presence is felt everywhere, through the effective and efficient provision of essential services.
It is Huduma Kenya that provides the most appropriate vehicle for effective and efficient service delivery by the national government – at all levels.
When fully implemented, service delivery will have been transformed to electronic platforms and payment systems for various taxes and fees that are required for the provision of different public services. The electronic payment system will drastically reduce the possibilities of graft and the time often wasted in such public transactions.
The greatest plus of the seamlessness of the Huduma Centres is their operating model of Integrated Service Delivery (ISD).
It provides the citizen with multiple-channel, single-window access to Government services at one-stop Citizen Service Centres, complete with call centres, mobile phone platforms and web portals.
The AAPAM, whose 2015 award Huduma won before the UN award, is an international professional association of African public administrators and managers, recognises the use of innovation and creativity to realise organisational objectives and goals. The other values are Courtesy, Integrity, Efficiency and Transparency.
The award not only puts Kenya on the map as a vision bearer of transformation in public service delivery, it also gives the Huduma Kenya programme recognition in the East African region as a public service reform process that works and a focal point in spearheading best practice in public service delivery.
The UN award gives the Huduma Centres a global standard seal of approval and Mr Kenyatta as the transformative leader.
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