The Public Service Cabinet Secretary, Moses Kuria, announced on Monday a possible introduction of charges for services offered at Huduma Centres.
Kuria was speaking at the takeover of the State Department of Public Service. He mentioned that the fee that would be introduced would be used to run the centres. Consequently, it would ease the financial burden on the Treasury.
“You have been enjoying these services without paying, there is no more free lunch. You have to pay for it, we will introduce a fee for service for government service and private service to support our e-commerce because Huduma Centre will be the backbone for e-commerce,” He said.
Furthermore, Kuria’s Communication officer, Josiah Murigu, mentioned that the proposal was still in the early stages of development. He also stated that the proposal would have to go through public participation and passed through the parliament for it to be implemented.
He then mentioned to Kenyans that they were yet to settle on an amount that they would charge for the services.
The CS additionally mentioned that partnership with the private sector would enable the services in the centres to be increased and offered to Kenyans effectively. He justified the decision by mentioning that President Ruto had tasked all departments to work towards sustainability. This would consequently reduce the reliance on the exchequer.
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Clarification from the CS
After being published by the media houses, the CS later backtracked on his statement. He offered a clarification on the proposal that the new charges would not be on the citizens. The CS published on X (formerly known as Twitter) that he was misunderstood by media houses.
According to him, the statement he released meant that the Huduma Centres are currently not being paid. Consequently, the centres are dependent on the Exchequer support making it unsustainable. His statement was directed towards the government departments paying a fee towards the centres and not the public paying the fee.
(AS USUAL), the media is misrepresenting what I said about Huduma Centres. The Public is already paying government departments for services offered through Huduma Centres BUT those departments DO NOT pay Huduma Centres for distributing their services to the public thus forcing…
— CS Moses Kuria (@HonMoses_Kuria) October 16, 2023
He released this statement after his first statement led to an uproar from Kenyans who did not find it reasonable for them to pay taxes and still pay for services from the Huduma Centres.
Across the country, there are at least 52 centres with the government aiming to increase them. Some of the services being offered currently include the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) registration, the national ID application, student loan application (HELB), a driver’s license application and renewal, and single business permits among others.
As part of Vision 2030, former President Uhuru Kenyatta’s government introduced Huduma Centres.
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