Tourists heading to the Nairobi National Park on Sunday were left stranded at the entrance as the eCitizen platform lagged.
According to journalist Adrian Blomfield, the delay was attributed to the park's adjustment to align with a new directive requiring all government services to be booked and paid for via the eCitizen platform.
"The reason for these massive queues is that now every tourist has to be registered on eCitizen and payments have to be made through the platform," Blomfield stated.
Blomfield lamented that the system was slow and most people could not acquire the most basic services on the platform. Before the directive issued by President William Ruto, it took about 30 seconds to get into the park.
Additionally, he voiced his frustration over the lengthy steps required to navigate the online platform, which have further been aggravated by the persistent system failures.
The journalist advised President William Ruto to relook at the situation to enhance the user experience for tourists visiting parks across the country.
"If you want to ensure everyone complies with rules and you want to remove avenues for corruption you have to make the system easy to navigate," he added.
He also expressed concern that the new directive was impacting not only tourists visiting the country but also importers and exporters.
Recent reports have highlighted issues with the eCitizen platform, leading to temporary disruptions in operations.
In August, hundreds of tourists heading to the park were stuck in long queues after the platform temporarily collapsed.
Tourists are advised to book-entry through the platform before paying via 222222, the only accredited pay bill.
A representative from Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS) explained that the transition to the online platform has encountered various challenges, but affirmed that the agency was actively addressing the issues.
