Kenya’s revenue collection has increased since the government started digitising services on eCitizen. eCitizen founder James Ayugi is in the process of handing over the platform to the government. The government now collects over KSh 900 million daily on eCitizen, as revealed by Julius Bitok, the Principal Secretary (PS) for the State Department for Immigration and Citizen Services. Who established eCitizen? According to Business Daily, James Ayugi is the brains behind Webmasters, the firm that established the eCitizen platform. Webmasters earn a KSh 50 convenience fee for every transaction made on eCitizen after it entered into a handover agreement with the government. “The handover was in good faith. The government wanted the ownership of the system, and we wanted it to be regularised. We developed it anyway for the government so it was not a paid handover; it was an agreement that we reached,” Ayugi revealed. How eCitizen works In an interview with Spice FM, Ayugi revealed he built eCitizen from scratch in 2008. He explained how the system works, citing parents’ payment of school fees for public schools. Ayugi said the portal reduces cases of fraud and corruption. “The main reason you have eCitizen is it acts like a central bureau. Information comes in, gets recorded, and is released. So, the Treasury only has visibility of the amount collected by the school. So, when they are disbursing capitation they know the actual number of students in the ecosystem, making it easier to avoid fraud and corruption,” he explained. He said the National Treasury works as a central administrator monitoring all transactions on the platform.
by Japhet Ruto