NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 2 — A Parliamentary Committee has asked the National Treasury to intervene and address payment limitations on the e-Citizen platform to ensure Kenyans abroad can seamlessly utilize debit and credit cards for payments.
National Assembly’s Committee on Defence, Intelligence and Foreign Relations chaired by Belgut legislator Nelson Koech made the recommendation on Friday after reviewing a Report of the Committee on its participation in the Mobile Consular Service Exercise in Tokyo and Osaka, Japan.
The Committee’s assessment is in line with its mandate to oversight the State Department on Diaspora Affairs in particular the Mobile Consular Services (MCS) programme that seeks to address the needs of Kenyans in the Diaspora by offering identity card application and replacement.
In the Report, the Committee directed the State Department for Diaspora Affairs to ensure the timely finalization of budgeting and funding for MCS activities before execution to mitigate facilitation challenges encountered during service delivery.
“Live fingerprint capture for Identity Card applications needs to be accelerated by the National Registration Bureau to speed up data capture and enhance accuracy thereby reducing rejections,” the Committee noted in its report.
Committee Members also emphasized the need for the e-Citizen platform to offer prompt and responsive 24-hour customer support to bolster user experience.
The Defence, Intelligence and Foreign Relations Committee is expected to table the Report in the coming days.
