Huduma Centres working hours extended

The Ministry of Public Service, Gender and Affirmative Action is working on a plan that will see government owned Huduma Centre extend working hours in various centres on shift basis in the next 100 days.

The Cabinet Secretary for Public Service, Gender and Affirmative Action Aisha Jumwa said the highly sought services will be launched and extended in 18 Huduma Centres nationally including the Nairobi GPO Huduma Centre whose operations will start from 7.00am to 7.00pm to enhance convenience in accessing services”

“The Ministry has already commenced hours on shift basis for the government-owned huduma contact centres to operate from 7.00 am to 9.00 pm to support customers,” said Jumwa.

Currently, the government has established a total of 52 Huduma Centres across the 47 counties at county headquarters, of which the CS noted that they were inadequate to meet the ever increasing demand to public services.

Jumwa was speaking on Monday at GPO Huduma Centre, located at the Telposta Towers in Nairobi where she had visited to familiarize herself with the services being offered by service providers.

The CS said the Huduma Kenya Services Delivery Programme has transformed the public service to one that is responsive to the needs of Kenyans as it has made government services convenient, dignified and easily accessible.

She announced that the government has plans to undertake 100 huduma mashinani outreaches across the country with the aim of bringing services closer to wananchi.

“We will launch the model sub-county Huduma Centre in partnership with National Government-Constituency Development Fund in preparation to set up Huduma centres across various sub counties,” said the CS.

She at the same time stated that the ministry has plans of launching a new revamped training program on Huduma Kenya Standards and Customer Service Excellence to equip staff working at the centres with requisite skills to serve customers better.

Regarding the chairmanship of Parliamentary Committees, the CS said Members of Parliament should adhere to the two-thirds gender rule on appointive and elective positions as envisioned in the constitution.

She said women have only been given two committees to chair, a need that requires Parliament to relook into the list of parliamentary committees which is dominated by men.

The Principal Secretary, State Department for Public Service Mary Kimonye who had accompanied the CS, called upon members of the public who have not collected their identification cards, birth certificates and smart licenses at Huduma centres to do so.

“Currently we have a total of 33,000 Identification cards, 8, 000 birth certificates and 3,200 smart licenses at the GPO Huduma Centre in Nairobi that are uncollected,” stated the PS.

Present at the event were the Chief Executive Officer Huduma Kenya Secretariat James Buyekane and the Nairobi County Commissioner Flora Mworoa among others.