The National Treasury has assumed responsibility for managing Kenya’s E-Citizen platform, Principal Secretary Chris Kiptoo has told Members of Parliament, marking a significant development in the government’s efforts to strengthen oversight of digital revenue collection.
Appearing before the National Assembly’s Finance and Planning Committee on Tuesday, chaired by Molo MP Kimani Kuria, Dr. Kiptoo said new regulations had been approved by Parliament’s committee responsible for regulations, paving the way for the Treasury to take charge of the platform.
The disclosure followed questions from lawmakers seeking clarity on the platform’s ownership and the steps taken to address concerns previously raised by the Office of the Auditor-General over its management and revenue collection.
Kuria pressed the Treasury to explain the change in ownership, noting that the Principal Secretary had previously indicated that E-Citizen was domiciled in another entity.
He asked the PS directly: “Who owns the E-citizen?”
The question drew support from Kesses MP Julius Rutto, who challenged the Treasury to clarify its legal mandate over revenue collection under the Public Finance Management framework.
Rutto argued that the law mandates the National Treasury to collect revenue, while the Cabinet Secretary has powers to designate the functions involved.
In response, Kiptoo said the Treasury had acted on concerns raised by the Auditor-General and had taken steps to address the issues surrounding the platform’s ownership and operations.
“We have appeared before on the issues raised by the office of the auditor general concerning the ownership of E-citizen and what goes on. I wish to report that we have gone ahead to address the issue.”
The PS said the government was also developing a revenue assurance system intended to improve the Treasury’s ability to monitor collections and verify the money received through the platform.
“We have a revenue assurance system that is now very advanced and once ready it is going to assist and assure us that whatever is being collected is something we are assured as us the national treasury.”
The system, he said, is expected to provide the Treasury with greater assurance over the revenue collected, although he did not specify when it would become fully operational.
Kiptoo also cited the approval of regulations governing E-Citizen as a key step in formalising the Treasury’s responsibility for the platform.
“We have E-citizen regulations that had already gone before Parliament and the committee dealing with regulations has already approved and Treasury has been given that responsibility managing or being in charge of E-citizen where we shall see on how to split the functions between s and revenue collection.”
The announcement comes as the government continues to expand the range of public services available through digital platforms, making oversight of the system increasingly important to public finance management.
During the meeting, the platform’s growing reach was highlighted as a major achievement, with a statement noting the number of government services now accessible through E-Citizen.
Kimani said, “We upplaud the Treasury because we now have 22,042 government services under now under e-citizen which is a very remarkable number.”
The expansion places greater importance on transparency, accountability and the proper reconciliation of revenue collected through the platform.
However, questions about the platform’s ownership and the effectiveness of revenue oversight have remained central to parliamentary scrutiny. Kiptoo’s remarks indicate that the Treasury is moving to formalise its management role while developing systems intended to strengthen revenue assurance.