Public sector struggles with remote service delivery

Frankline Sunday  Senators during a Special Sitting on Coronavirus at Parliament. [Boniface Okendo, Standard] Public officials are struggling to provide services remotely as technological hitches and poor capacity hinder operations in many State institutions.

As Kenya marks one month since reporting its first case of infection of the Covid-19 disease, residents are still adjusting to movement restrictions that have greatly disrupted economic and social
activities.
The public sector has particularly been hard hit even as officials in parliament, the Judiciary, national and county governments struggle to maintain operations. Last week, parliament postponed sittings scheduled to discuss the draft Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2020 following concerns about maintaining social distancing guidelines in the House. 
According to parliament’s standing orders, the National Assembly and Senate require 50 and 15 members respectively to constitute a quorum. In addition to this, public participation on crucial legislation in several stages at both the Senate and National Assembly has been thrown into disarray. Machakos, Nakuru and Baringo counties are just some of at least 10 counties that have in the last few days invited members of the public to submit comments on their 2020/2021 budgets.

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With public participation a constitutional requirement, this has raised concern that implementation of the important county budgets could run into legal hurdles in coming days.  
Internet connection The Judiciary, where courts have turned to video conferencing and emails to deliver rulings and receive submissions, is also facing challenges from poor Internet connection and inadequate ICT capacity.
“It took us five hours to argue a petition by Zoom where the actual time on our feet for all advocates was less than two hours,” lamented Nelson Havi, chairman of the Law Society of Kenya on Thursday. “Five breaks lasting 10 to 30 minutes to reconnect to Zoom.
That is the only matter heard today.” Zoom, a video conferencing applications, has gained popularity as more people around the world are forced to work remotely. The app has however been criticised for lax privacy and security features that could expose users to cyber criminals, with some companies in the private sector restricting employees from using it.