Kenya’s e-gov app Gava Mkononi will integrate over 5,000 services

The Kenyan authorities has launched the Gava Mkononi app, permitting entry to over 5,000 services on smartphones. But what are these services?

Kenya has launched an app with over 5,000 authorities services. Referred to because the Gava Mkononi app, the service is an extension of the nation’s eCitizen platform and a part of President William Ruto’s programme to digitise authorities services. eCitizen is a digital platform that gives Kenyans entry to authorities services and will be totally built-in into the Gava Mkononi app. Gava Mkononi has additionally been developed to integrate the Huduma Kenya Service Delivery Programme (HKSDP) features, a community of service centres that present entry to numerous public services and eCitizen.

According to a press release by the ICT Authority, a state division beneath the Ministry of ICT and Digital Economy, “Gava Mkononi is a Swahili word that means ‘government in the palm of your hands’, meaning that anyone in the world can access all Kenyan government services by using any device, may it be a mobile phone or a tablet. This is why the e-citizen mobile app was named ‘Gava Mkononi’. Making e-citizen a mobile app was a way to simplify accessibility and allow people to download and install the app or via the web.”

Does the Kenyan authorities present as much as 5,000 services?

Kenyans have been eagerly awaiting a breakdown of the over 5,000 authorities services now accessible on the app and the eCitizen web site. At the beginning of 2023, there have been fewer than 400 services on the portal, with driving licence renewal being probably the most sought-after service, after enterprise registration and police clearance certificates.

The ICT Authority instructed TechCabal that there are over 5,000 services accessible by means of numerous companies, which will be accessed by way of the eCitizen portal or the brand new app, Gava Mkononi—take, as an illustration, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which gives round 560 services. With over 30 companies, every with its services, the cumulative depend reaches past 5,000. The Export Processing Zones Authority gives services akin to registration, renewal, and accreditation of coaching directions licences. The National Assembly offers services associated to public participation, public petition, common studies, submitting petitions, enterprise schedules, payments, internship purposes, go to purposes, e-newsletters, Hansard studies, research visits, subsequent sitting info, order papers, votes, and proceedings, legislative proposal monitoring, invoice monitoring, movement monitoring, statutory devices monitoring, statements monitoring, petitions monitoring, and questions monitoring. The Registrar of Political Parties handles services regarding political occasion membership standing, registration, and resignation.

Additional entry channels

As of March 2023, there have been over 29.4 million Kenyans with smartphones, whereas the variety of function telephones stood at 33.4 million. These figures point out that function telephones are nonetheless broadly utilized in Kenya, so Gava Mkononi will even be accessible by way of USSD utilizing the code *2222#.

In addition to the USSD code and smartphone app, Gava Mkononi will be accessed by means of an intensive cell cash company community, together with Safaricom’s M-Pesa, in addition to financial institution companies akin to KCB with 28,000 retailers, Equity Bank with over 40,000 retailers, and Cooperative Bank with over 22,000 retailers. President Ruto said, “Gava Mkononi will be available in more than 250,000 M-Pesa shops, 28,000 KCB shops, 40,000 Equity shops, and 22,000 Cooperative Bank shops to serve those without smartphones.” Moreover, residents can entry eCitizen by means of the net and have the choice to go to Huduma Centres, the place the HKSDP services are supplied bodily.

Plans for the platform

The state plans to digitise identification playing cards for residents sooner or later, a function that will even be accessible on the app and the eCitizen portal. According to the ICT Authority, Kenyans will now not want to hold a bodily card when the venture is accomplished. For now, there aren’t any launch dates, however the concept of recent digital IDs has been talked about earlier than by cupboard secretary Eliud Owalo.

There are plans to cease bodily visits to the Huduma Centres fully; Kenyans will solely need to bodily go to the centres for services akin to ID card replacements.