Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi has said government online services through eCitizen had cut down on graft by some government employees and offered Kenyans an overhaul of the public service to make it more accessible, affordable, and customer-centric for both local and international users of government services.

Speaking when he joined President William Ruto during the first anniversary of eCitizen, Mudavadi said that the online government service had stemmed from the outcry of millions of Kenyans who, for far too long, endured painful, expensive, and often corrupt experiences in government offices.

“Many were subjected to long hours of waiting and, sadly, to demands for bribes to access services that should otherwise be their right—guaranteed either by citizenship or the payment of official fees,” said Mudavadi.

Mudavadi said President Ruto was also deeply concerned about the loss of government revenue through weak, manual systems that were vulnerable to exploitation and manipulation by rogue officers.

“His directive to digitize government services was not only aimed at plugging these loopholes but also at unlocking the full potential of internally generated revenue, which could then fund key national development projects and programs,” said Mudavadi.

Mudavadi said that data indicate that from a paltry 394 government services, the government had on boarded the e-Citizen platform with 22,000 services of identified services making Kenya a global leader in having such numbers of services online.

“This has seen the government collect billions of shillings every month and cut down on leakages of billions of money that would end up in people’s hands corruptly,” said Mudavadi.

 He said that beyond revenue protection, the government recognized that embracing emerging technologies would enable us to serve the Kenyan people better while also opening doors to skills acquisition, knowledge transfer, and job creation.

“It is in this spirit that the President directed all Ministries, Departments, Corporations, and Agencies to digitize their services,” adding that, “It would integrate them onto the eCitizen platform, setting an ambitious but necessary deadline of December 2023.”

Kenya he said was celebrating the milestones it had achieved, identifying improvement areas, and forging new paths for enhancing the eCitizen experience. This is also a moment to reflect on how public service delivery can continue to evolve to meet the expectations of a rapidly digitizing world.

On the same note, Mudavadi explained that doing away with the 1130 pay bills accounts for eCitizen and collapsing all of them into the 22222 pay bill had also seen the government

Mudavadi noted that the introduction of the visa-free directive by Kenya had seen a surge in the number of foreigners visiting Kenya in the Financial Year 2023/2024 indicating that 666,475 foreigners used the Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA), a 20 percent increase from the previous year.

He noted that as opposed to a restrictive visa, any foreigner interested in visiting Kenya only needs an ETA.

“Let me clarify here that ETA is not a visa. It allows a hand allows every foreigner to visit the country as long as they have a valid passport with at least one blank page and valid for at least six months after your planned arrival date and a few other basic requirements,” said Mudavadi.