Kenyans seeking services at Huduma Centres across the country have been left stranded after Huduma Kenya announced a temporary suspension of services following a power outage that affected its data centre in Nakuru.
In a public notice issued on Monday, the agency said the outage had disrupted access to key government services offered through Huduma Centres nationwide.
“We wish to inform the public that services are temporarily unavailable at the Huduma Centre due to a power outage that affected our data centre in Nakuru,” Huduma Kenya said.
The agency added that teams had already been sent out to address the issue and to reinstate services as soon as possible.
This outage will affect Huduma Contact and the Tele-Counselling Centre, thereby reducing access to the services provided by these platforms.
The impact of the failure will be felt on various government services such as the issuance of national identity cards. New applications, replacement requests and ID collection are likely to experience delays, affecting Kenyans who require the documents for various official transactions.
Passport application services and document verification processes are also expected to be affected, potentially slowing travel arrangements, employment processes and other activities that depend on official travel documents.
Business owners are also likely to feel the impact, as business registration, licensing and renewal services provided through Huduma Centres have been disrupted. The interruption could delay compliance processes and other business-related services.
Other government services, including NHIF, NSSF, KRA PIN updates, as well as the processing of birth and death certificates, have also been affected, inconveniencing thousands of Kenyans who rely on Huduma Centres for integrated public services.
It is not the first time that the services of Huduma Kenya have been disrupted. As notified by Huduma Kenya in its press release dated April 20, the same type of disruption occurred affecting GPO Huduma Centre, Huduma Contact, and Tele-counselling Centre.
Huduma Kenya offered their apologies to their esteemed clients who have been inconvenienced, ensuring them that everything was being done to bring back the services.
“We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused,” said the agency.