Huduma centres help Kenyans save Sh343m in travel expenses

A section of Huduma Centre in Nairobi on July 16 2018

Huduma Centres have saved Kenyans billions of shillings that could have been lost through corruption and transportation to access public services, a new study shows.

The study on the impact of Huduma Centres shows that their services save every Kenyan an average of Sh422 in transportation costs.

Under the 100 days Rapid Results Initiative, the study found, Huduma Kenya served a total of 814,151 Kenyans who are estimated to have made total savings of Sh343.5 million in transportation costs.

“On the overall, citizen’s transport costs have been reduced by 67 per cent due to services provided by Huduma Centres in the country,” indicates the internal audit.

Similarly, the report says Huduma Centres services have contributed significantly to the reduction of corruption in accessing public services by 96 per cent when compared to the traditional service points.

“The time used at Huduma Centres has reduced the citizen overall previous experience in accessing public services by 86 per cent,” says the report. The study sought to understand the variation in the number of visits citizens make to complete an application for services related to President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Big Four agenda at Huduma Centre compared to the traditional government service points. It also sought to find out the transport costs involved, the time saved, the loss suffered by citizens at the traditional service points and savings made when served at Huduma Centre. Due to the demand for its services nationally, the Report recommends that Huduma Centres should create more outlets to provide more services to the citizen.

It also recommends that the Huduma Secretariat make available more staff at Huduma Centres’ busy counters, carry out an improvement on systems uptime and ensure electricity stability.

More centres

The Huduma Kenya Programme, which will mark five years in November this year since it was established, completed its first phase early this year by establishing at least one Huduma Centre in each of the 47 counties across the country.

Huduma Kenya is a government programme launched by President Kenyatta to enhance the access and delivery of government services to all Kenyans. It now has a total 52 Huduma Centres nationally with Nairobi having more centres.

The centres have served up to 30,000 people daily and collected over Sh12 billion for government ministries, departments and agencies through the Posta Pay System in the last financial year.

Huduma Centres, a brainchild of the Huduma Kenya Programme, have delivered a large number Government services, including duplicate ID cards, birth certificates, police clearance, National Hospital Insurance Fund and Kenya Revenue Authority services.