A Huduma Centre. /FILE
A power outage affecting a key data centre in Nakuru has disrupted services at Huduma Centres across the country, temporarily denying Kenyans access to dozens of essential government services.
In a public notice issued on Monday, Huduma Kenya announced that services at all Huduma Centres had been rendered unavailable following the outage and said efforts were underway to restore normal operations.
“Huduma Kenya wishes to inform the public that services are temporarily unavailable at Huduma Centres due to a power outage that affected our data centre in Nakuru. Our technical teams are working to restore services as soon as possible. We apologise for the inconvenience caused and thank you for your patience,” the notice stated.
The disruption is expected to affect thousands of citizens who rely on Huduma Centres daily for access to national and county government services.
Huduma Centres operate as one-stop service delivery points, bringing together multiple government services under a single roof to improve convenience and efficiency for members of the public.
More than 70 services are currently offered through the centres nationwide.
Among the most sought-after services are the application, renewal and replacement of National Identity Cards, issuance and replacement of birth and death certificates, and processing of police abstracts.
The centres also provide business-related services, including business name searches and registration, as well as Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) compliance certificates and loan repayment services.
Citizens also use the facilities for National Social Security Fund (NSSF) and Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF/SHA) registration and contribution services.
Judiciary services available at the centres include support for filing civil cases, payment of court fines and deposits, issuance of summons, virtual court assistance and general case inquiries.
Other public services offered through the network include applications for certificates of good conduct, inquiries and claims relating to unclaimed financial assets, and free tele-counselling and mental health support services.
Kenya currently has 57 Huduma Centres spread across all 47 counties.
While most counties host one centre each, Nairobi has five centres, while Kajiado and Laikipia counties each have two.
Beyond inconveniencing citizens, the disruption is likely to affect revenue collection as thousands of fee-based government transactions that generate revenue for various state agencies are put on hold until systems are restored.
Huduma Kenya did not indicated when services would likely be fully restored, but assured the public that technical teams were working to resolve the outage and resume normal operations as quickly as possible.
Source: the-star.co.ke
