Government Citizen Feedback Management System

The Government through the Ministry of Public Service and Gender and public service stakeholders is set to roll out a Citizen Feedback Management System (CFMS) within the Huduma Halisi campaign programme.

Huduma Halisi is a campaign within the Ministry that was launched in 2018 by H.E. President Uhuru Kenyatta with an aim to promote the values and principles of public service such as honesty, transparency and accountability. Huduma Halisi is anchored on the African Union’s theme of the year 2018, winning the fight against corruption: a sustainable path to Africa’s transformation, with a strong focus on governance and citizen participation. The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) is providing financial and technical support to AU member states in the articulation of the campaign roll out in select member states including Kenya.

CFMS has been designed within this campaign programme to provide a platform for citizens and public service providers to engage. Through CFMS, citizens will be able to provide feedback in form of complaints, concerns, suggestions and compliments regarding the public services they receive. The platform has also in-built capabilities to engage citizens in other areas of governance including budgets and public resource tracking. CFMS will be accessed via an internet connection or via a LAN point-to-point set up from the server or via USSD technology and then later extended to android technology and short code.

Last week, public servants from various government institutions underwent training on CFMS at Kenya School of Government in Lower Kabete, Nairobi. Managing the training program included senior program staff from UNECA led by their representative Mr. Mactar Seck and software developers, Ubongo Africa.

During the training opening ceremony, UNECA Representative, Mr Mactar Seck exuded confidence in achieving the fight against corruption in Africa noting that Kenya had been selected as the pilot project. “We are piloting the Huduma Halisi programme in Kenya with the aim of generating best practices for application as we roll out similar programmes in the rest of Africa,” he said.

It is expected that CFMS will help improve public service delivery as well as inform government policy on various issues.

By Winnie Mburu