ICT Cabinet Secretary Eliud Owalo has revealed that the Kenya Kwanza government will revive the Huduma Namba plan which failed under former president Uburu Kenyatta’s regime.
Speaking on Tuesday, January 10, the CS stated that the Ruto government will explore the same idea in rolling out its newly launched digitisation programme.
Owalo argued that the programme will reduce the struggle of producing National Identification (ID) cards to access services.
“The intention of Huduma Namba was good because it was trying to ensure that we have a digital identity that could facilitate virtual transactions between the government and the public as far as the provision of services is concerned,” He said.
“It is the same thing we are going to do as we roll out this government digitisation process because it is still imperative that we don’t need as Kenyans to go to government offices flashing identity cards,” He added.
Owalo asserted that Ruto’s administration has established procedures to ensure that the digitisation programme adhered to various countries’ laws in order to prevent a similar outcome to that of Huduma Namba.
“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. The public’s interest is better protected when that architecture is in the hands of the State, and that is exactly what we have done,” Owalo insisted.
He stated that the government will produce cards similar to Huduma Cards, that would embrace online services and tools.
The CS added that the new idea would also enable the government to collect revenue from the project.
Also Read: Kioni Accuses Ruto Government of Weaponizing State Agencies
