The developers behind Kenya’s main government services platform, eCitizen, have said they are not to blame for inconsistencies flagged in revenue records, insisting all payment information is accurate and available for verification.

The three-member consortium, Electronic Citizen Services (ECS) LLC, which built and maintains the digital platform, says it has complete transaction records for every service processed.

It said it only invoices the government after all transactions have been verified on the government side.

"Every end month, we invoice for every transaction that has gone through our payment gateway; on the government side, they have to verify that all the transactions were made. We can pull all the data from our system and verify down to the phone number, service sought, and ID number," said David Kiprono, ECS’ Director of Government Relations, during an interview with Citizen TV.

Concerns over eCitizen’s financial records were raised by Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu, who said revenue worth 15.5 billion shillings collected through the platform for the year ending June 2023 could not be confirmed.

Her office also reported discrepancies in the 2024 financial records between what government departments recorded and what the eCitizen system showed.

But Kiprono, who is also a founding director at Webmasters Kenya Limited, one of the companies in the ECS consortium, said the questions are for the Interior Ministry, which manages the platform on the government’s behalf.

"Parliament has questions to ask the government department handling eCitizen, which is in the Interior Ministry," he said.

"As a vendor, we deploy and manage the system. It is very foolproof. You cannot falsify a transaction. Sometimes, when there is a lack of clarity, they say they’ll hold on, and we let them do it, and later they pay us once they have clarified things."

Convenience fee explained

The Sh50 convenience fee charged for each eCitizen transaction has also drawn criticism from some lawmakers.

But Kiprono said the charge is the only thing keeping the platform running.

"To date, eCitizen has never been funded by the exchequer. The convenience fee is what we pay for cybersecurity licences, certifications, bandwidth, salaries, and the company’s bills," he explained.

He added that ECS does not even get the full Sh50, because ministries involved in service delivery also deduct a share for maintaining the platform.

"We never even get the full Sh50 because each of the ministries involved deducts something from the convenience fee to run the budgets for the departments maintaining the platform," said Kiprono.

Revenue Collection disputes

While ECS developed the platform in 2014, it faced challenges over the control of revenue collected through it. Initially, ECS had contracted Goldrock Capital to collect payments using the M-Pesa Paybill number 206206.

However, Goldrock’s role came under fire because there was no formal contract between the firm and the government.

The Auditor-General said this meant public money was being handled illegally by a private company.

Goldrock was eventually removed, and control of the 206206 Paybill was handed to the National Treasury.

Kiprono said ECS had hired Goldrock only to collect the convenience fee, and any issues between the company and the government were not ECS' responsibility.

"Goldrock had been contracted to collect this convenience fee on behalf of ECS. If it had any regulatory issues with the government, that is not on us," he said.

Goldrock was replaced by Pesaflow, a company whose shareholders include former staff from Webmasters Africa.

Platform now under Government control

ECS continued running eCitizen until the government officially took over the platform in 2023.

After that, ECS signed a three-year deal to maintain the system.

The platform is now under the Department of Immigration and Citizen Services.

Despite the changes, ECS says it still plays a key role in keeping the platform operational and secure.

Kiprono said they are currently helping the government collect around Sh1 billion daily through Citizen.

"We grew from making Sh100 million a day to Sh1 billion. It oscillates such that on some dry months we go to Sh900 million,” he said.

eCitizen is now the main gateway for over 22,000 services offered by government bodies, including the National Transport and Safety Authority, Kenya Revenue Authority, and the National Registration Bureau.