State greenlights payment of school fees via eCitizen

The Cabinet has approved the digitisation of Kenya's entire education system, all the way from the basic and tertiary levels to the university level, primarily to address fraud.

The government announced this in a statement on Wednesday following a Cabinet meeting at the State House in Nairobi.

The meeting discussed bills, policies, treaties, conventions, and agreements that will drive programmes and projects under the Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA).

“In keeping with the administration’s digital transformation agenda, the Cabinet sanctioned the digitisation of the entire education system," the statement said.

"This intervention aims to address the governance challenges within our education system that have led to parallel accounts, charging of unauthorised school fees, diversion of the exchequer releases on capitation, and other fraudulent activities that undermine the integrity of the education system, leading to the enrollment of ghost students."

This comes after the High Court on Tuesday extended orders blocking the government from collecting school fees via the eCitizen platform.

Judge Chacha Mwita had suspended a circular that Education Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang issued on February 7, ordering all institution heads to share school bank account details with the office of the State Department's Director General.

The PS said the digitisation process was part of the government’s efforts to onboard all government services onto the eCitizen platform to enhance service delivery.

The case followed a petition by Nakuru doctor Magare Gikenyi, who said the directive was illegal and violated the principles of good governance.

The Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) and the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) had also voiced their opposition to the government's directive.

KUPPET and LSK became the sixth and seventh interested parties in the case, after the Council of Governors (CoG), the Kenya Secondary School Heads Association, the Kenya Primary School Heads Association, the Kenya Parents Association, and the Consumer Federation of Kenya (COFEK).

Despite the court order, President William Ruto vowed to carry on with the project, saying corruption cartels must be stopped.

"Payment of school fees through eCitizen won’t be stopped since it helps to eliminate the payment of extra levies by some schools," he said, adding his administration is committed to a digital payment system to curb the theft of government and other resources.

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