E-Citizen is the official government of Kenya (GoK) digital payments platform that enables Kenyan citizens, residents and visitors access and pay for government services online.
The platform has had its fair share of scandals where thieves in suit rob Kenyans by costing simple services at Kshs. 50. At some point, it was jungle rule; holding government at ransom.
In late 2018, it was reported that Webmasters Kenya, the company that developed the system, demanded Kshs. 1.5 billion from the government in order to hand over the system. This they did after over Kshs. 30 billion had been transacted through the system.
Webmasters says it retains the intellectual property rights.
Earlier this year, it was reported that Kshs. 5.6 billion had been stolen from the system, prompting the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) to start the probe.
However, Webmasters MD James Ayugi said the reports claiming that Sh5.6 billion had disappeared were not true. Here is one of the letters from a private source to a popular blogger in Kenya Cyprian Nyakundi;
Hello Sir,
I want to bring your attention to e-citizen cartels, the ‘name reservation’ service is a cash cow for someone. I frequently use the service and once one of the employees who is also my friend told me the breakdown of the system cannot end as long as the current manager are there.
They keep switching the system off to in order to ask for repair fees. Currently, ‘name reservation’ costs Kes 150 and there comes a period every year mostly between March and April where all the names submitted are rejected.
The system developer had included a search portal to assist in identifying whether a business name is already in use or not, but the cartels closed that icon in December 2018.
Now assuming they reject 100 new names in a day for 2 weeks.
Who are the beneficiary of the Paybill collections?