Questions over the management of Kenya’s eCitizen platform have intensified after Kiambu gubernatorial aspirant Bonnie Mwangi called for a probe into billions of shillings in collections and transactions that the Auditor-General says could not be fully accounted for.
Mwangi wants Parliament to scrutinise the platform’s financial and technical controls, including unexplained transfers, unsupported collections and the government’s continued reliance on private firms to run critical payment functions.
The concerns come as eCitizen has grown into a major government revenue and service-delivery platform. The Draft 2026 Budget Policy Statement says the system was generating Sh1.45 billion a month in 2022, illustrating the rapid expansion of digital payments in government operations.
The Statement says digitisation has become a key tool in reducing revenue leakages and improving transparency across ministries, departments and agencies. More than 350 government bodies have joined eCitizen over the past three years, with services ranging from business registration and immigration to land transactions, licences and regulatory approvals.
“To modernise public service delivery, over 17,668 services were onboarded onto the e-Citizen platform from over 350 agencies,” the BPS notes.
The platform began in 2013 as a pilot between the National Treasury and the World Bank, offering 10 services. It now provides more than 22,000 services.
It is against this backdrop that Mwangi has raised questions about whether the government has sufficient control over the system and can independently account for the money processed through it.
“For FY2023/24, the eCitizen Revenue Accountability Statement reported collections of approximately Sh100.84 billion, but bank statements provided to the Auditor-General supported only approximately Sh64.30 billion,” Mwangi stated.
He said the difference of about Sh36.5 billion required explanation.
Mwangi also cited about Sh2.575 billion in receipts held in the eCitizen settlement account as of June 30, 2024 that could not be matched to invoices in the Pesaflow system. The figures he presented linked the discrepancies to partial, erroneous and duplicate payments.
Another issue involves four transactions worth Sh127.85 million transferred from government’s eCitizen Paybill 222222 to private entities on January 25, 2024.
Although collections through the paybill were meant to be automatically swept into the government’s KCB settlement account, auditors found that the four amounts went to private entities. They were not provided with the approvals and supporting documents required to justify the transfers.
Mwangi wants the government to disclose who received the funds, why the transfers were made and who authorised them.
He further questioned about Sh6.33 billion deposited into Equity Bank eCitizen collection accounts from an account that had not been approved by the National Treasury. The related bank statement was not provided to auditors, limiting their ability to establish the transactions processed through it.
The aspirant also raised concerns over payments to private vendors for payment-gateway services on government-owned infrastructure. He cited audit figures showing Sh492.16 million and US$414,299.60 paid under an ICT Authority support and maintenance framework involving Webmasters Kenya, Pesaflow and Olive Tree Media.
His concerns follow the World Bank’s decision to debar Webmasters Kenya and its founder James Ayugi for at least five years over fraudulent and obstructive practices linked to separate World Bank-funded contracts.
Mwangi stressed that he was not accusing Webmasters of stealing government revenue, but called for Parliament to investigate the platform’s financial and technical operations.
He wants contracts, bank statements, system-access records, vendor payment schedules and beneficial ownership information made available, alongside a full reconciliation of questioned transactions.
“Show us the money. Show us the accounts. Show us the contracts. Show us who controls the system,” he said.