Questions/Answers

Huduma Mashinani is a mobile outreach programme by the Huduma Kenya Secretariat that seeks to enhance access to Kenya Government services to the grass roots. ‘Huduma Mashinani’ is a Swahili phrase meaning ‘Service to the Grass Roots’. At the Huduma Mashinani outreaches, services are provided in the open and under tents in the Sub Counties where physical government service delivery points have not been established. By providing informational, interactive and transactional Government services in the sub counties, villages and markets, many citizens are enabled to access government services conveniently as Government agencies with services on Huduma platforms reach a wide audience who could otherwise could not access their services. The objective of the Huduma Mashinai initiative is to offer seamless and accessible Government services to the marginalized, old, poor and vulnerable citizens in remote/ far flung areas and who cannot access essential government services easily. The outreaches provide multiple services suit the citizens’ convenience and enhance dignity of the customers. The Huduma Mashinani outreaches leverage on Huduma Centres. When a Huduma Mashinani outreach has been scheduled, on rotational basis, one the staff at each of the selected counters goes for the outreach programs in surrounding and far-flung areas to extend the services of various Ministries, Departments, Agencies and Counties (MDACs) services and the other continue to provide services at the Huduma Centre. On average 3,500 to 5,000 customers are served per Mashinani depending on the population density of the areas. As a result, citizens do not travel or move to far off and to many offices in search of services. This innovation has helped address the challenge of inaccessibility of government services by citizens and substantially reduced the costs incurred by citizens in traveling to County Headquarters to access services.

The "Huduma Mashinani" initiative aims at enabling citizens from remote/far-flung areas to access essential government services at their convenience. Services provided during Huduma Mashinani include application for birth certificate, National Identity Cards, National Hospital Insurance Fund, National Social Security Fund, Health services, Kenya Revenue services and registration for affirmative action loans for youth, women and persons living with disabilities. The Huduma Mashinani outreaches innovation therefore help many citizens saves time and costs when accessing services since most Government offices are located in major towns. By providing services at the grassroots, access is guaranteed to all citizens equally.

8.2 Huduma Kenya Secretariat has operationalized Huduma Mashinani using various technologies that enable efficient and effective service delivery. For example, all services at the remote location require access to line Ministries, Departments, Agencies and Counties back end systems thus secure VPN connections and configurations enable secure access of the systems by staff. 10.2 Huduma Mashinani outreaches serve individuals from all age sets and cadres. The outreaches also serve the marginalized, poor and vulnerable citizens in remote areas. Citizens equal opportunities to access Affirmative Government Empowerment funds such as Inua Jamii, Uwezo Fund, Women Enterprise Fund and Youth Fund. 16.5 The Huduma Mashinani initiative helps disseminate vital information about public services thereby creating public awareness on the service requirements eliminating the need for brokers/middle men who take advantage of citizens. 16.6 During the Huduma Mashinani, service counters are placed in tents from which citizens can openly and transparently get service for the various government services being offered. 16.9 At Huduma Mashinani customers are issued with birth certificates which ensures that all births are registered and children get a birth certificate document. Additionally, adult citizens get opportunity to register for their national identification cards among other registrations.

Huduma Mashinani has eliminated transport costs previously incurred by customers who had to travel long distances in search of Government services. This has positively impacted the social and economic stature of customers and also makes the initiative environmentally sound as they do not need to use motor vehicles which produce fumes that negatively impact the ozone layer. Huduma Mashinani setup requirements include tents and other locally available materials that are cost effective. This saves the Government the costs of setting up a physical facility making the initiative affordable and sustainable into the future.

Huduma Mashinani has enhanced service access to customers in remote and far flung areas. Previously, customers had to either visit a Huduma Centre located at the County headquarters or other government offices which are mainly located in major towns.

Huduma Mashinani outreaches offer a platform for citizens of all genders to apply for an array of government services such as National Identity cards, Social Security, health services among others thereby promoting gender equality. Additionally, women and youth are able to access information on how they can access Government Affirmative Action Funds from agencies such as Uwezo Fund, Women Enterprise Fund, Youth Fund, Inua Jamii thereby enhanced economic empowerment by all.

The initiative mainly targeted to reach the marginalized, the old, the poor and the vulnerable citizens in remote/ far flung areas who cannot access essential government services. The initiative provides services at locations that are convenient to citizens who could otherwise not access the services or had to spend a lot time and cost on travel in search of an office to apply for public services. Through this initiative, the citizens in far flung areas and particularly the poor and the marginalized can now access high quality public services at no or minimal cost possible.

Implementation of the Huduma Mashinani followed the below sequence; 1. Preparation of the Huduma Mashinani proposal and concept 2. Presentation of the concept for review and adoption 3. Adoption and approval of the Huduma Mashinani concept by the leadership 4. Communication to various Ministries, Departments, Agencies and Counties informing them of them of the additional service delivery channel 5. Pilot of the Huduma Mashinani with targeted Huduma Centres 6. Monitoring and Evaluation of the pilot and incorporation of lessons learnt 7. Implementation in all the 52 Huduma Centres 8. Continuous monitoring of the outreach programs

1. Restricted access to backend systems in the field was a challenge at first. Technical teams worked to modify the firewalls to ensure access. 2. Internet connectivity challenges: The teams use modems in the field to connect to the backend systems. 3. Lack of electricity at some locations. The teams hired and used generators to power their computers and printers, and the public address systems. In some instances rechargeable batteries were used. 4. Operational gap in aligning the different partners. Effective communication was employed and the National Government Administration Officers and village elders were used to mobilize the citizens.

Use of technology: Huduma Kenya has partnered with various Government Ministries, Departments, Agencies and Counties to automate/semi-automate processes for deployment of services in far flung areas. The automation involves setup of secure VPN connections and staff access the backend systems and run multiple outreaches simultaneously. Generators and rechargeable batteries are used to power the laptops at locations without electricity. Leverage on existing infrastructure: The initiative uses resources already invested in the 52 operational Huduma Centres and other locally available resources that are cost effective. The re-use of investments enable efficient and effective public service delivery while saving the Government money.

The Huduma Mashinani initiative draws inspiration from both local and international trade fairs and exhibitions. The exhibitions are usually setup in tents to showcase products and services from various business and investors. This events are usually held annually and largely provide information services. Also, the trade fairs are held in major cities and attendants have to pay to participate. To improve on this model, Huduma Mashinani now provide real-time services besides the informational services. Also, the outreaches are held more frequently, in the villages and free of cost for all seeking services.

Virtual Private Networks (VPN): deployment of Huduma Mashinani services require restricted (VPN) access to backend systems and the technical teams modified the firewalls to accept traffic from specified computers used during the outreaches. Cloud computing: Huduma Kenya has two data Centres that provide private cloud for various Ministries, Departments, Agencies, and Counties securely access information and processing customer requests. Huduma cloud consists of a network of remote servers hosted on the internet to store, manage and process data. This vast system is critical in offering services during the outreaches.

Yes, the initiative has been adopted to other countries. Huduma Kenya Secretariat has hosted delegations from all over Africa including South Africa, Tanzania, Nigeria, Mali, Swaziland, Uganda, Gambia, Rwanda, Togo, Mozambique, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Papua New Guinea and Zambia. All the delegations have stated that they would be willing to replicate the Huduma Kenya Program and the Huduma Mashinani Initiative in their Countries. The Mashinani initiative has also been adapted in the health sector in Kenya evidenced by the mobile health clinics set up in mobile tents. The mobile clinics are used to offer health services from one place to another. Some of the services offered included: Voluntary Counselling services, Cancer testing, TB testing among others.

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Financial Resources: Innovative and cost-effective strategies are used in extending services to villages. Average budget for each outreach is Kshs. 100,000 to cater for transport, tents, chairs and public address systems. The levies and fee collected by Agencies during these outreaches out way the investments, further, the more than 5,000 citizens who attend each Mashinani outreach save more money that they could have used to travel to major towns to get services. Human resources: Staff from the various Ministries, Departments, Agencies and County Governments stationed at Huduma Centres deployed to offer services during the outreaches.

Huduma Mashinani has top leadership support and citizen goodwill thus highly demanded by leadership and citizens. The Programme is also sustainable as the costs of set-up per Mashinani is manageable and affordable given most of the requirements are sourced locally. The Huduma Centre Managers are also facilitated with funds that they spend and account for to hold the outreaches. Additionally, the staff offering services through the outreaches are the same staff deployed to the Huduma Centres which is cost effective for the Government with regard to the human resource.

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Huduma Mashinani initiative has been evaluated by Institute of Customer Service and awarded the best Community Service Initiative in Kenya in 2016. ICS similarly awarded Huduma Kenya Program as the overall winner in Customer Service, 2016 rankings. The initiative was also evaluated by African Association for Public Administration & Management (AAPAM) and awarded in November 2017 as an innovative public service initiative. Lastly, Huduma Kenya Secretariat usually conduct surveys and interviews where we obtain citizens feedback on the initiative.

Customer feedback is collected using questionnaires and interview guides. The questions asked include if the customers are satisfied, the amounts citizens used to spend to access services and how much they have spent (This is to establish the impact of the initiative) and if they would recommend the Huduma Mashinani services to their families and friends. The feedback obtained help in the continuous improvements of the initiative and promote the accountability in provision of Government services by Huduma staff and the Government Agencies at Huduma.

From the received customer feedback, the customer satisfaction rating for Huduma Centres and Huduma Mashinani was 97.6%, social impact in terms of customer savings and benefit is Kshs. 3,615 per citizen served. The net promoter score obtained was +75.5%. The interactions with customers has assisted the Government to get these valuable feedback as well as qualitative inputs that enable continuously improvement of services on Huduma service delivery platforms. Similarly, continuous engagement of staff promote team work, innovation, service excellence spirit and high morale. Staff assigned to extend services at the outreaches are always delighted to serve.

Huduma Mashinani is one of the service delivery channels of the Huduma Kenya Programme which has so far operationalized 52 Huduma Centres across the 47 counties and provide 126 services from various Government Ministries, Departments, Agencies and Counties. The Huduma Kenya Programme day to day operations are managed by the Huduma Kenya Secretariat which is a department under the State Department of Public Service in the Ministry of Public Service, Gender, Senior Citizens and Special Programmes. The Huduma Secretariat has Centre Managers in all the 52 Huduma Centres who are responsible in organizing and managing the Huduma Mashinani outreaches in their respective Counties.

1. H.E the President of the Republic of Kenya and the Cabinet Secretaries and Principal Secretaries hold Huduma Summit meetings to provided strategic direction on the programme. 2. Government Ministries, Departments Agencies and Counties were engaged through letters, quarterly meetings, and workshops. 3. Huduma Centre Managers (CMs) for the respective Huduma Centres are involved through meetings to plan for the outreach in a strategic location within their county. 4. Political leadership such as Members of Parliament (MPs) from the various constituencies engage Huduma Kenya through letters seeking Mashinani partnerships. 5. National Government Administration Officers (NGAO), Chiefs and village elders are engaged through calls to sensitize and inform citizens/customers on upcoming Mashinanis. 6. Huduma Kenya Secretariat host international delegations to learn on how they can replicate this initiative in their respective countries. So far, delegates from Lesotho, Malawi, South Africa, Nigeria, Tanzania, Mali, Swaziland, Uganda, Gambia, Rwanda, Togo, Mozambique, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, Burundi and India have visited the Programme.

1. Open environments and open information curtail any corruption incidences. Huduma Kenya Programme will ensure service delivery standards are maintained. 2. Services to the citizens can be extended in a cost effective manner. The Programme will therefore continually deploy cost saving strategies. 3. Citizens/customers in far-flung areas equally need the services but most times they just lack the platforms. The Programme will therefore identify strategic locations to reach a wider audience during the outreaches. 4. Outreach programs greatly complement the physical and digital services platforms in extending public services to those who need them most. The Programme will therefore continue to leverage on the Mashinani platform.