E-Citizen is a dangerous and deep hole

E-Citizen is a dangerous and deep hole, MPs are now making statements

William Ruto has strongly advocated for the digitalization of government services in Kenya, particularly by strengthening the E-Citizen platform.  Here are some of his key promises and actions related to E-Citizen: Ruto has pushed for all government services to be made accessible through the E-Citizen platform to improve efficiency and transparency. He has repeatedly emphasized that digitalization will help reduce bureaucracy and corruption. He has taken measures to improve the functionality and usability of the platform. He has encouraged the expansion of services available on the platform. Ruto has mandated state agencies to use the E-Citizen platform for all transactions. He has warned executives of state agencies who resist using the platform and set deadlines for them to comply with the guidelines. He called for transparency in revenue collection through the use of the e-Citizen platform. In summary, Ruto sees e-Citizen as a key tool for modernizing government services in Kenya. This may all be quite good, but from personal experience, it can be said that this platform is unstructured. It is extremely difficult to navigate. The MP identified several flaws in the agreement between private companies and the government for the operation and management of the e-Citizen government services payment network, as it promotes private interests. Although William Ruto has strongly promoted the e-Citizen platform as an important step towards improving government services in Kenya, there are several shortcomings and challenges. The platform is prone to outages, resulting in thousands of government services being temporarily unavailable. This leads to frustration among citizens and critical transactions. Users often report slow processing times for payments and applications, leading to delays in accessing services. What good is a central point if nothing happens? There are complaints about technical errors and glitches that make using the platform difficult or impossible. Some users find the platform confusing and difficult to navigate. There are reports of inadequate or slow support for platform issues. Not all citizens have equal access to the necessary devices (smartphones, computers) and a stable internet connection to use the platform effectively. This exacerbates inequalities in access to government services. And then there are concerns about data security. Given the centralized storage of large amounts of citizen data, there are concerns about data security and data privacy. The platform is vulnerable to cyberattacks that could block access to services and potentially compromise sensitive data. Although the goal is the complete digitization of all government services, the migration of some agencies and services to the platform has been slow. There are reports of a lack of integration with other government systems, which can lead to inefficiencies. There has been resistance from some government entities to fully utilizing the e-Citizen platform, possibly because they were supported by the manual systems. And then, perhaps the most serious issue, users have reported issues with payments not being processed or delayed. In some cases, there has been criticism of the fees associated with using the platform. One MP criticized him for submitting the documents to the committee shortly before the meeting. "We are monitoring your performance on behalf of the citizens. Kenyans want to know where the money they pay goes," the MP said. There have been calls for copies of the contract to be submitted since last year, but this has not happened. Although the contract is expected to run for three years, from 2023 to 2026, no exact start and end dates are specified Now politicians fear that this deficiency could open up the possibility of wasting public funds. This office is currently conducting a special audit of the e-Citizen digital platform. The audit is based on its importance for the provision of government services. The special audit is intended to shed light on the functioning of e-Citizen and, among other things, ensure the accuracy and completeness of the data generated through the system. The government must address these deficiencies and continuously work to improve the e-Citizen platform, or Ruto will soon be left without his pants. However, the points mentioned reflect the challenges and complaints raised by users and observers. @https://taifaleo.nation.co.ke/habari/e-citizen-ni-shimo-hatari-la-kina-kirefu-wabunge-sasa-watoa-kauli/