Gov’t takes over e-Citizen service from private player - CS Eliud Owalo

ICT Cabinet Secretary Eliud Owalo made the announcement saying that the takeover is in line with President William Ruto’s directive to digitize over 5000 government services within the next six months.

“We have just taken over the e-citizen platform and want to upgrade the infrastructure and by next week we will be onboarding additional services on that platform from consumption of services by the public,” he said in an interview with Citizen TV’s News Night show on Tuesday.

“The public’s interest is better protected when that architecture is in the hands of the State, and that is exactly what we have done.”

According to the CS, the government is in the process of engaging all the stakeholders in the digitisation process starting with those in charge of laying out the infrastructure, and the budgetary allocators up to the service providers.

Referring to the recent pledge by the head of state to roll out 100,000 kilometres of fibre optic across the country, the CS said the plan was to lay the foundation for the long-term success of the project.

“We are first going to ensure we have got adequate ICT infrastructure all over the country by rolling out 100,000 km of fibre optic cable. We will then have the initial budgetary provision to start rolling out the services,” he explained.

"You first digitise government records so that everything is on ICT enabled platform, you then digitise the services by engaging service providers but the platform will be in the hands of the government."

The CS at the same time noted that the ultimate results would see less capital-intensive services to the public in that it would be creating its own revenue through little taxable fees.

“As we progress, we will then have most of these being finalised through appropriation in aid -where you generate revenues internally through that process there is a mechanism based on the fees you charge, some go to the service providers and some are ploughed back and re-invested into the same system,” Owalo said.

The e-Citizen platform allows Kenyans to access and pay for government services online.