NAIROBI, Kenya Oct 21 – President Uhuru Kenyatta has linked improved efficiency in public service to the successful migration of 350 government services to the e-citizen portal since August 2014.
Speaking during the commemoration of the 58th Mashujaa Day celebrations on Wednesday, President Kenyatta said that the digital platform has served 27.2 million unique customers since inception and raked over Sh 87.1 billion in revenues.
President stated that the introduction of the e-citizen platform was meant to address the loophole in the payment of government services via cash.
“Further, and on digitizing our economy, in April 2013, during my first few months as President, I directed the National Treasury to conduct a detailed survey of all chargeable Government Services and to ascertain how many of those services were paid for through digital means,” President Kenyatta stated.
“The survey found that over a third of all the payments to the Government were cash-based, presenting a high opportunity for leakage and abuse of the system. In one case, 60 per cent of revenues were spent on making collections,” he added.
Some of the services currently offered through the e-citizen platform include; passport applications, application of driving license, business registration, notice and registration of marriage, civil registration services and Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) services such as pin application and registration.
On October 14, the Registrar of Political Parties, Anne Nderitu, stated that her office intends to undertake the registration of political parties’ membership online through the e-citizen portal to enhance accessibility by members of the public.
Nderitu said the process will also incorporate other web-based systems.
Speaking during the launch of the mass voter registration for institutions of higher learning at the University of Nairobi, Nderitu said the move will give Kenyans a chance to check their registration status periodically and an opportunity to inspect the political parties’ register.
“The purpose of doing that is that there have been complaints from a section of Kenyans saying that they do not have access to the register to confirm of they are registered as members of political parties. Others feel that probably they may want to resign from one political party to join another,” she said.
Currently, the process is undertaken manually.
The political parties’ registrar added that it was important for Kenyans to continuously check their details as in line with provisions of the Political Parties Act which requires that the register is publicly available.
Nderitu said the online register will be ready and operational by the end of October, 2021.
According to the information published on the National Treasury and Planning website, the e-citizen portal also known as Government Digital Payments Unit is mandated to digitize all payments into government, to increase revenue collection, minimize the cost of collection and enhance service delivery.
“It ensures that Citizens, non-Citizens and Business entities can access Government Services online and make Payments electronically and conveniently, using their preferred method of payment, 24 hours a day and from wherever they may be in the world,” the National Treasury says.
The portal was established following findings that over a third of government payments were cash-based, providing an opportunity of pilferage and abuse of the system, in addition to high cost of collection, according to the National Treasury.
The government formed a cabinet committee chaired by the Deputy President and thereafter Government Digital Payments Taskforce which developed modalities to onboard more government services on a digital platform.
The portal, available on www.ecitizen.go.ke, was developed as a payment gateway and integrated with electronic payment platforms including mobile telephone money payment services.
The portal was entrenched via Gazette Notice No. 9290 published on December 30, 2014 and the mandate of the Taskforce later enhanced through Gazette Notice No. 3299 published on May 13, 2015.
On January 12, 2018 the Unit was moved from the Presidency to the National Treasury under the Directorate of Accounting Services and Quality Assurance and reports to a Steering Committee chaired by the National Treasury Principal Secretary created through Gazette Notice No. 400 of the same date.
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