Education

Why we introduced fee payment on eCitizen - Ruto

By Manny Anyango | Thursday, February 8, 2024

The High Court on Wednesday suspended the implementation of the new payment process, pending its determination.

President William Ruto has defended the move by his administration to compel parents to pay school fees via the eCitizen platform.

Speaking in Japan on Thursday while addressing Kenyans living in the country, the head of state noted that there has been a lot of resistance to implementing government services.

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“We have realised there are illegal levies charged by some of the schools that go to accounts that nobody knows,” Ruto said.

“Some of the money paid by parents for example for boarding and maybe lunch, because we provide resources for learning in all government primary and secondary schools.”

Ruto further said that when he came into office, there were about 3,000 pay bills attached to government institutions, and his team has managed to reduce it to one official government pay bill.

“Initially we had something like over 3,000 pay bills, and now we have reduced them to one so that we can have sight of government revenue,” he said.

Court petition

President Ruto’s remarks come after the High Court on Wednesday suspended the implementation of the new payment process, pending its determination, saying orders and directions will be issued on February 13, 2024.

A notice of motion and petition was filed by one Benjamin Magare Gikenyi.

Currently, all government services are paid via a single pay bill number 222222, which was introduced in 2022.

Through a gazette notice dated December 20, 2022, Treasury Cabinet Secretary Njuguna Ndung'u said the digital payments platform is integrated with all available electronic payment platforms in Kenya, including mobile money telephone payment services.

“The Government of the Republic of Kenya has developed the eCitizen digital payments platform through which citizens and all persons will be able to pay for government services,”

Services provided under the portal include motor vehicle ownership, land searches, birth, and death registrations, tax payment, and NHIF among other services.