REVEALED: How eCitizen Ownership Underwent Dubious ‘Double’ Transfer
Members of Parliament have expressed concern about the dubious ‘double’ transfer of eCitizen, the official method of payment for all government services.
Butere MP Tindi Mwale, Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, led the MPs in questioning the dubious transition of ownership between the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a local corporation, and the National Treasury over several years.
The inquiries were in reaction to the Auditor General’s audit of the platform, notwithstanding the government’s previous assertion that it controlled and owned eCitizen.
The portal was created as part of the Kenyan government’s drive to digitize revenue collection in Kenya.
The Auditor General's Special Report on Government Digital Payments Platform (eCitizen) is out!
— Julians Amboko (@AmbokoJH) August 5, 2025
Some heavy revelations here including the unearthing of diversion of funds from the mandatory 222222 Paybill for payment of government services to private accounts & the irregular… pic.twitter.com/IfETh0doRS
The World Bank/International Finance Corporation (IFC) funded the initiative and hired a local company to offer software development and maintenance support.
As a result, on August 7, 2017, the IFC handed over instruments, including contracts, source code, business cases, and handover notes, to the National Treasury via a handover letter.
In August 2017, the government seized and owned the eCitizen platform.
However, it was then revealed that on January 13, 2023, the Ministry of ICT and the local enterprise signed a transfer agreement.
Isaac Kamau Nganga from the office of the Auditor General (OAG), before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) committee Chaired by Butere MP Tindi Mwale to examine Auditor General’s report for the FY ended 30th June, 2023 at Bunge Towers, Parliament, Nairobi. PAC wants OAG to… pic.twitter.com/VLKkAzMAB5
— The Standard Digital (@StandardKenya) August 5, 2025
The vendor of the eCitizen platform decided to unconditionally pass it over to the government. This is where the point of conflict emerged.
MPs questioned how the vendor came to reclaim ownership and management of the eCitizen platform after IFC turned it over to the National Treasury in 2017.
“It was not explained how the ownership and control of the eCitizen Platform ended up back in the hands of the vendor after having already been handed over to the National Treasury by IFC in 2017,” the MP said in a report.
Furthermore, it was determined that despite the “retransfer” of ownership by Webmasters in January 2023, the government did not gain complete control of the systems, resulting in continuous over-reliance on the vendor.
“…the government did not obtain full control of the systems, resulting in continued over-reliance on the vendor,” Mwale said.
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“Noting that the majority of government services are provided through the platform, the control of the system by the vendor creates a single point of failure and a strategic risk in the delivery of public services to the Kenyan citizens.”
According to MPs, the platform was used to supply the majority of government services.
However, the vendor’s dominance over the system produced a single point of failure and a strategic risk in the provision of public services to Kenyan citizens.
The eCitizen platform currently runs 22000 government services and collects a whopping Ksh700 million a day.
REVEALED: How eCitizen Ownership Underwent Dubious ‘Double’ Transfer
