Huduma Centres across the country have revised their operational hours following a Presidential address on Friday, March 26 to help fight the coronavirus pandemic.
Working hours have been scaled down from the previous 12 to 10.
“This is to notify the public that the Huduma Kenya Contact Centre operational hours have been revised from 7 am to 7 pm to 7 am to 5 pm,” said the institution.
For inquiries on government services, the institution encouraged Kenyans to make contact via WhatsApp number 020 690 0020.
On Friday last week, President Uhuru Kenyatta encouraged employers and enterprises to let employees work from home, but only visit offices if services cannot be rendered remotely.
“All employers and enterprises of whatever nature have been directed to allow employees to work from home except for employees in essential services that cannot work remotely,” said the President.
One-stop-shop
Huduma Kenya, modelled as a one-stop-shop for government services, has witnessed rapid growth since its launch in the country.
As of February 2017, according to the World Bank, the Huduma Centre Kenya program was running 45 centres, five of which were located in Nairobi.
Currently, only six out of the 47 counties; Mandera, West Pokot, Elgeyo-Marakwet, Bomet, Transmara, and Vihiga do not have a centre.
A majority of Huduma Centres are domiciled at government post offices and on average, busy centres conduct up to 5,000 transactions daily, while centres in sparsely populated areas process around 50 transactions, according to the World Bank.
Nationwide, an average of 30,000 transactions are conducted every day. However, this number can go up to 42,000 during periods of the year when many citizens are seeking services, such as during voter registration.
The move for the centres to scale down operational hours is against the backdrop of surging coronavirus cases in the country, as the government grapples with containing the third wave of infections.
On March 12, the President reiterated that the economy remained upbeat in 2021, projecting it would grow by 7 percent, thanks to bold decisions that were taken in the year 2020.
As of March 28, Kenya had recorded more than 130, 000 cases, with 91, 754 recoveries and 2,117 deaths.
