NAIROBI KENYA, Jan 11 – Cabinet Secretary of ICT Eliud Owalo said the Huduma Namba project did not see the light of the day because the government did not properly raise public awareness and the political climate at the time of the launch left grounds for skepticism.
This follows after the Huduma Namba failed to kick off after the High Court declared its roll out illegal on grounds of being in conflict with Data Protection Act 2019.
In an interview with Citizen Tv, Owalo said that while Huduma Number’s initial intentions were positive, the public was not made aware of them, and the launch’s tense political environment left room for skepticism.
He stated that Huduma Namba was founded with the goal of streamlining public access to government services, which is the same goal as President William Ruto’s digital superhighway project.
“The pitfall that befell Huduma Namba is that there was no adequate sensitization at the beginning, and if you remember, it was being launched at a time when there was also a crowded political atmosphere so there were suspicions about it,” he said.
“It is the same thing we are going to do as we roll out this government digitization process because it is still imperative that we don not need as Kenyans to go to government offices flashing identity cards.”
Awalo also stated that the e-citizen service platform, which was formerly managed by a private corporation, is now under the control of the Kenya Kwanza government.
The takeover, he said, is in keeping with President Ruto’s order to digitize more than 5000 government services in the following six months.
“We have just taken over the e-citizen platform and want to upgrade the infrastructure and by next week we will be onboarding additional services on that platform from consumption of services by the public,” he said.
“The public’s interest is better protected when that architecture is in the hands of the state, and that is exactly what we are doing.”
According to CS, the government is currently working to involve all relevant parties in the digitization process, starting with those in charge of planning the infrastructure and money allocators and working their way down to the service providers.
