National secondary schools in the country are the latest to fall in line President William Ruto’s directive of digitizing their services.

In a circular dated January 31, Principal Secretary State Department of Basic Education Dr Belio Kipsang directed parents with students in national secondary schools to pay fees through government’s e-Citizen platform.

“The directorate of e-Citizen in partnership with Information Communication Technology Authority (ICTA), Ministry of Information Communication and the Digital Economy and the national Treasury have been coordinating the onboarding of all government services onto the e-Citizen platform to enhance service delivery.

“As part of compliance with the requirements it is directed that parents/guardians make fee payments for their learners in your institutions through this platform,” read part of the circular.

Consequently, all principals were directed to submit details of their schools’ bank accounts including; account name, account number, bank code and branch code.

National school principals have until February 6 to submit the requirements to the Office of the Director General, State Department for Basic Education.

The directive elicited mixed reactions from Kenyans. Some opined that it was a good move which would curb theft of monies by principals and school boards.

On the other hand, some Kenyans said this was another scheme for some in government to loot public funds by centralising payment systems.

“Mambo ni Matatu. Principals and respective school boards will be accountable. Wapende wasipende,” Lutomia Goddy wrote.

“Kumbe all long this has been the intention of government,to channel money through one platform so that they can easily extort from the public,” Odogwu added.

By end of December 2023, Immigration and Citizen Services Principal Secretary Julius Bitok announced that revenue collected on e-Citizen portal in a single day is KSh900 million.

Currently, government has digitized over 14,000 services. The government is banking on an average of 5,000 new users who sign up to e-Citizen daily.