This came against a background that most public offices still operated on the traditional rigid model of public administration where processes and procedures are more important than citizen satisfaction.
However, this changed recently when I walked into a government office dubbed Huduma Kenya in Nairobi's GPO to replace a lost document. For the first time, I saw government being run like a business complete with first class customer service, comfort and orderliness that is seldom associated with government offices.
I spent a few minutes there and was then asked to come back for the document after 10 days. Indeed after the days lapsed, I picked the document in record five minutes.
Launched a few months ago by President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto, Huduma Kenya is a 'one stop shop' approach in reforming service delivery in Kenya.
Huduma Kenya involves amalgamating related services within one building, possibly on the same floor, effectively making it possible for service seekers to access it conveniently.
This means that you will be able to get birth certificates, national identity cards, passports, registration of business names, and applications for marriage certificates, drivers' licences, police abstracts and many other services in one place.
In what promises to be an excellent weapon for handling inefficiency across the entire spectrum of public service, Huduma Kenya will also introduce one stop Huduma Service Centres to provide customer services to citizens from a single location, online e-Huduma web portal to provide integrated services offered by various government ministries, departments and agencies and a unified and integrated channel Huduma payment gateway to facilitate ease of payment for government services.
Indeed, tough times call for new thinking. One of the most glaring national challenges that successive governments have battled with is how to deliver effective service in real time.
Hoping that Huduma Kenya will not be another expensive experiment like the many that we have witnessed, the Jubilee government seems to have cracked the riddle of slow, unfriendly, and impersonal civil servants that have become a fixture in government offices.
The rigid processes and procedures must now be transformed to become cost-efficient, competitive and customer-friendly in line with the Ministry of ICT's strategic objective of enhancing citizen service delivery through utilization of ICTs.
The ministry has promised to improve universal access to ICT services to the public by developing appropriate infrastructure, establishing incubation hubs, Rural Resource Centres and Multimedia Technology Parks, and facilitating the availability of affordable ICT hardware and software. Certainly, Huduma Kenya is a firm baby step towards ensuring that Kenyans not only have access to service, but also information that can mainstream them into the national development agenda.
However, as the government rolls out its Digital Government programme, it should know that the success of Huduma Kenya lies not in launching it, but sustaining it over time and space.
If the government wants to remain etched on the pages of history as one that introduced sustainable e-governance, sufficient resources must be allocated to support this initiative. Its implementation must not be rushed to meet political expectations.
Instead, it should be piloted professionally before taking it to the counties. The government should also devise ways of building synergies between itself and the private sector to build a strong and participatory architecture that can grow this programme.
Research has shown that public-private-partnerships enable governments to stimulate rural development through ICTs in two ways: by bringing efficiency, openness and responsiveness in public service; and enhancing citizen participation in the formulation and implementation of rural development programmes.
Indeed, the future seems pregnant with promise. With Huduma Kenya, Kenyans should expect a people-centric, decentralized and participatory civil service that delivers services with greater accountability, responsiveness and sensitivity.
Through ICT, qualitative services become possible in least time, in least cost, in least difficulty and in greater convenience. This is what good governance is all about.
The writer is the CEO, Media Development in Africa (Medeva) and graduate student of Public Policy, Indira Gandhi University.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Jason Nyantino
Quelle/Source: AllAfrica, 15.01.2014
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