Govt to Reduce Onboarding of Services on e-Citizen After Ksh 82M Budget Cut

by Washington Mito on Thursday, 18 July 2024 - 2:35 pm

President William Ruto listened to a presentation during the official unveiling of Gava Mkononi, an eCitizen digital platform that has been on-boarded with over 5000 government services.

William Ruto

The government is set to miss out on its target of onboarding various services on the e-Citizen platform following the review of the 2024/2025 budget.

According to the revised Programme Based Budget, the State Department for Immigration and Citizen Services was to onboard 11,000 government services on the digital platform this financial year.

However, after a budget cut of Ksh82 million for e-Citisen services, the government will only be able to digitise 6,000 services.

Therefore, over, 5,000 services will still remain inaccessible on the digital platform, posing a risk to President William Ruto's plan for digitisation of government services.

Former Treasury Cabinet Secretary Njuguna Ndung'u (left) and Treasury Principal Secretary Chris Kiptoo (centre) preparing to submit the proposed budget to the National Assembly

Photo

National Treasury and Economic Planning

As detailed by the National Treasury, Ksh689,921,779 was to be allocated for the operation of e-Citizen services. However, after the Ksh82 million budget cut, only Ksh607,641,033 will be allocated.

The withdrawal of the Finance Bill 2024 has occasioned the budget cuts witnessed in the current budget. The withdrawal has caused an additional budget deficit of Ksh300 billion.

Upon getting into office, Ruto led the government in revamping the e-Citizen platform which onboarded more government services.

According to the Head of State, the digitisation programme was aimed at enhancing service delivery and sealing loopholes for revenue collection. This informed the decision to create a central pay bill number.

"The cash payments system is slippery and often an avenue for corruption. Technology will help us eliminate this,” Ruto stated during a trip to Japan in February.

While addressing the nation on July 11, Ruto noted that 17,000 government services had already been onboarded including passport applications, Driving Licence services among others.

Meanwhile, Kenyans seeking registration of persons services will also have to seek services from the current government facilities.

This follows the pausing of the construction of civil registration services registries across the country.

The state department had planned to construct and operationalise 10 registries in the current financial year.