22,000 government services, disrupted as E-Citizen crushes

Immigration PS Julius Bitok addresses the media during the reception of the first batch of travelers who used the Electronic Travel Authorization system to come to Kenya without a Visa at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport on January 05, 2024. [Denish Ochieng, Standard] At least 22,000 government services were unavailable for a better part of Friday after the e-citizen payment platform crashed. Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) was one of the parastatals that announced unavailability and disruptions in payment of services. KRA took to social media advising stakeholders to use alternative payment methods like the bank as they worked on restoring the services. "We would like to inform all our stakeholders about the unavailability of the e-Citizen Payment Service. Please use bank payment options as we work to restore services. We sincerely regret any inconvenience caused," KRA posted on their X account. Thousands of Kenyans who rely on e-Citizen for accessing government services were affected with the government attributing the downtime to internal network issue. Tourists seeking entry into Nairobi National Park were stranded for hours after the major system failure. The frustrated visitors waited at the main gate for hours with some eventually cancelling their visits. According to e-Citizen Director General Ambassador Isaac Ochieng, the network failure affected their operating system leasing to frustrations to Kenyans seeking services online. "We would like to notify our clients and the general public that early today, our online platform experienced hitches that affected the normal access to our services," said Ochieng. He added, "The hitch was occasioned by an internal network occurrence that affected our operating system. Our technical teams have since successfully resolved the problem and restored normal operations." As early as 6am in the morning, there was a long queue of tour vans lining up the Kenya Wildlife Service(KWS) headquarters along Lang'ata Road in Nairobi. The hitch lasted through afternoon and KWS had to issue temporary gate passes for tour divers to reduce congestion at the gate. The drivers would then pay the access fees using an alternative paybill number as they exited the park. "We came here at 4:30am and the system had issues. We waited for three to hours until the gates were opened and gave us a gate pass to just go. We went to the park at about 10:30am but unfortunately we didn't see the animals we had expected to see," said Manaswee Chowdhury, a tourist from India. "Our visit to Kenya was good including visiting Maasai Mara and Amboseli but the last day experience in Kenya was ruined at Nairobi National Park. They should have an alternative," he added. Tourists who voiced their frustrations about the system failure stated that they were deprived of the opportunity to see Kenya's Big Five animals including lions, cheetah, elephants, which are typically visible during the early mornings. The tour guides and drivers also had to bear additional costs due to the delay in entering the park. Tony Ngotho, a tour driver, mentioned they arrived at the park at 6 am but only received the entry permit at 9 am, a process that typically takes 10 to 15 minutes. "It was frustrating for my guests because they were complaining. We are asking those responsible for the e-Citizen system to consider incorporating MPESA or even implementing Process Data Quickly (PDQ)," Ngotho said. PDQ is a type of payment that allows businesses to accept card payments from customers. "Challenges like these cause visitors to wait until they become frustrated and choose to leave. The government should create an alternative solution in case the system fails," said Peter Kandie, a tour guide. Peter Gikanga, a tour driver and guide, had to bear additional costs by booking a taxi for his clients to the airport to ensure they wouldn't miss their 1 pm flight while he dealt with the gate issues after exiting the park. "I left home at 4 am and arrived at KWS by 6 am, only to enter the park around 9 am after leaving behind the Identification Cards and passports. It was a huge challenge, as my guests had a 1:30 pm flight to Norway," said Gikanga. However, KWS management did not issue any statement over the system hitch. Kenyans Wildlife Service is among state agencies that moved payment of e-citizen starting Augutst 22, 2023 where touriss planning to explore KWS-managed national parks, reserves and sanctuaries pay the conservation fees on the platform. Last month, Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi announced that the government had successfully integrated 22, 000 services into the e-Citizen platform. Mudavadi also revealed that more than 13 million registered users with more than 375, 000 Kenyans visiting the platform daily. Before the onboarding of all the services, the platform had about 11 million e-citizen existing users and an average of 5, 000 daily users. Digitisation and automation of all government critical processes was part of Kenya Kwanza's administration to enhance government service delivery by making at least 80 per cent of all government services accessible online. Migration of the government services to e-citizens was announced by President William Ruto in 2023 to asserting that the poor and vulnerable Kenyans were excluded and discriminated owing to the inefficiencies, wastage, delay and corruption in delivery of public services to citizens. "Colossal backlogs of cases not attended to, missing files which resurface upon the offer of a bribe, favouring some groups and disenfranchising others on the basis of nepotism and tribalism, have been the order of the day," said president Ruto during the launch of e-citizen platform. He added that, "For the citizen, inordinate delays and lack of information on the progress of their matters was a normal part of the ordeal of obtaining government services." President Ruto also directed that all payments for government services should be channeled through a consolidated paybill so as to inject better management and transparency in revenue collection and to stem leakages from numerous collection points. Consequently, over 1,130 pay bills were consolidated into a single payment system for all government services resulting to a daily collection of approximately Sh900 million. Ruto announced that the migration was meat to tame corruption and ensure unserved or underserved regions and communities are no longer excluded from government service provision. "Citizens need only pay the gazette fees for government services, and not a shilling more. people can track the progress of their interactions in real time, thus eliminating uncertainty, corruption and frustration," he added. According to him the fees were accurately accounted for in real time through Information Communication Technology (ICT) Authority and remain visible at all times to the National Treasury and the Kenya Revenue Authority. In November 2024 during the first anniversary of the e-Citizen directorate, Ruto warned heads of institutions that had not migrated to e-citizen and those who bypassed the e-citizen platform and used alternative payment methods for undermining transparency. He gave a one-week ultimatum to 29 agencies including to The Independent Police Oversight Authority (IPOA), Kenya Power Company Ltd, National Defence University, Energy and Petroleum Regulation Authority (EPRA) to migrate their services to the digital platform or they would "make use of the door."

22,000 government services, disrupted as E-Citizen crushes

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