Nairobi News

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Kenyans react to multi-billion scandal at eCitizen


Kenyans on Tuesday woke up to the news that Treasury had disowned a firm contracted to collect revenue on its behalf from the eCitizen portal.

Treasury principal secretary Kamau Thugge, in court papers, stated that the government did not authorise any private firm to collect eCitizen payments on its behalf.

eCitizen is an online portal through which the government provides essential services such as applications for passports, driving licences, business registration certificates, vehicle logbooks and title deeds.

Goldrock has since 2014 collected over Sh5.6 billion under the eCitizen platform.

RECEIVES MILLIONS

Goldrock Capital has sued the Treasury and Webmasters Kenya, which developed e-Citizen portal, for denying it access to the website’s mobile money (M-Pesa) paybill number that receives millions of shillings every day from Kenyans seeking government services.

Dr Thugge said Treasury only authorised Webmasters Kenya to train government officials to handle the payment portal hence any contract purporting to hire another firm for collection of revenue is null and void.

The story published on Business Daily sparked reactions from Kenyans on Twitter who wondered how a firm would collect sh5.6 billion since 2014 from the eCitizen platform without authorization.

Kenyans online demanded for accountability of all the funds sent to the e-Citizen paybill number.