Kenya’s eCitizen platform: emerging challenges of corruption in the digital era [from interweave.africa]

Edition #78 From our recently launched interweave.africa - Kenya's digital platforms are revolutionary for the country's population, but are being hampered by a familiar set of analogue problems...

In case you missed it, interweave.gov launched a sister newsletter, interweave.africa, a couple of months ago. This week, we are sharing a piece from our team over there, focusing on the familiar problems hampering digital government in Kenya. Part II of the piece, looking at what can be done to fix it, is now available over on the interweave.africa site!

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In 2014 Kenya, under the Uhuru Kenyatta administration, ushered in a new era of efficient government digital services with the introduction of the eCitizen platform. The platform, developed as a cross-agency initiative, serves as a comprehensive hub for various government-to-citizen (G2C) services, accessible through an online portal, mobile application, and a USSD code (*2222#). 

Developed in 2013 with financial support from the World Bank’s private lending arm - the International Finance Corporation (IFC) - and other donors, the platform officially began operations in July 2014. Almost a decade later in July 2023, under a new administration, Kenya celebrated a significant milestone: the introduction of 5,000 government services onto the platform. This strategic move represented a flagship statement for the delivery of Kenya’s National Digital Masterplan 2022-2032. The platform encourages direct interaction between the government and citizens, broadening public participation in civil society and crucially developing more transparent and efficient governance,  including combatting the country's endemic corruption and inefficiencies.

This aim has persisted to this day. In fact, the 2023 5,000 service milestone included the launch of the platform’s Gava Mkononi App - simplifying access to digital services by providing easy smartphone accessibility - which was lauded by Kenya’s President Willliam Ruto as a further move to eliminate corruption. By digitizing services, the government aims to reduce the bureaucratic red tape that often facilitates corrupt practices, enhance service delivery, and make government services more accessible and user-friendly for the general populace.

Petty corruption: a many-headed hydra

However, almost a decade after its launch, the eCitizen platform still grapples with the pertinent challenge of corruption, as well as challenges varying from low digital literacy levels to a cyber attack that left many questioning the platform’s data safeguarding capabilities and immunity to data manipulation for corrupt purposes. 

Kenya’s eCitizen platform is currently mired by corruption. Source

Corruption has long been a governance challenge in Kenya, dating back to the government at independence. According to Transparency International's 2023 Corruption Perceptions Index, Kenya ranked 126th out of 180 countries assessed, indicating the perceived integrity level of the country's public sector, with bribery being one of the most pervasive forms of corruption.

The transition of services online – such as passport applications, filing tax returns and most recently paying school fees – was supposed to eliminate corruption associated with cash transactions and direct dealings with government officials. But even within the platform, government officials have found ways to exploit it for corrupt purposes, like delaying processes and then demanding bribes to expedite them. 

Specifically, Kenyan citizens have expressed concerns about government officials exploiting bureaucratic red tape within digital systems like the eCitizen platform. In an interview with MIT GOV/LAB, a corporate executive, Judy, described her experience of passport application and collection. Following her application and biometrics, she encountered unexpected challenges, including inaccurate passport pick-up appointment dates. She voiced her frustration over the intentional complexities and delays in the eCitizen-facilitated passport application process. Given the service’s poor design, applicants often succumb to bribery to bypass the eCitizen platform's lengthy appointment dates, with corruption often as much a result of poor service design as it is of ethical lapses.

Even so, often these inefficiencies are not inherently technological flaws but rather a result of internal sabotage within the systems, a strategy aimed at making bribery a seemingly indispensable step for citizens seeking services. A similar pattern emerges in the application process for police clearance certificates, and business name registration, where citizens face hurdles and delays that extend beyond the natural challenges of the digital landscape. 

To this end Nancy Nyambura, a LinkedIn user, took to the platform to express her outrage at government officials attempting to extort Ksh. 1000 (~ $7.5) from her on three separate occasions when she went to collect her father’s death certificate, which she had applied for on the eCitizen platform. The officials attempted to extort her by claiming that the system was malfunctioning. After refusing to pay the bribe multiple times and making several unsuccessful visits to government offices in an attempt to obtain the certificate, she eventually obtained it through a lawyer who offered assistance. This additional step not only added unnecessary hassle but also undermined the platform’s aim at promoting transparency.

The systemic challenges facing the eCitizen platform

However, while the vast majority of complaints surrounding the eCitizen platform revolve around petty bureaucratic corruption, there have also been instances of deceit on a larger scale.  All payments for state services are channeled through the eCitizen platform, which collects money through a paybill service managed by a local private firm, Goldrock Capital Limited. In a case in March 2019, a probe was initiated by the Directorate of Criminal Investigation(DCI) into the alleged disappearance of Ksh 5.6 billion(~$ 36 million) from the firm's account, but the investigations did not yield substantial results. 

There is an adage that digital transformation is only 10% data, 20% architecture, and 70% business change. Applied to Kenya’s digital government, this brings to light the systemic challenges that must be addressed to truly combat corruption if digital governance is to become a resounding success in the country. The effectiveness of the eCitizen platform in combating corruption is dependent on the integrity of the system within which it operates. While technology can help in the fight against corruption, its success ultimately relies on the integrity of the system in which it is implemented.

Kenya's eCitizen platform has the potential to become one of Africa's most developed and diverse digital governance systems. The country’s journey towards digital e-governance is undoubtedly a significant step towards more efficient government services and a more transparent and accountable government.  But the platform operates within an environment where corruption is deeply rooted. The platform exhibits multiple loopholes, including untraceable transactions, allowing individuals to exploit vulnerabilities. 

Disharmony between the system's design and the reality on the ground, coupled with a lack of internal commitment from government officers, contributes to its failure in reducing corruption. The unrealistic expectation that introducing digital G2C services without addressing underlying issues and ensuring proper training and monitoring will eliminate corruption becomes evident in this context. The e-Citizen platform is a system that is still hampered by very analogue challenges, and one that cannot thrive without issues of fraud being first highlighted, and then tackled from and at the heart of government.