The convenience fee for eCitizen services will double to Sh100 in changes that will see the charge based on the cost of the service, in changes that look set to make thousands of government services costlier.
Kenyans will now pay Sh100 for all services costing over Sh100,000, while those priced between Sh10,000–Sh99,999 will attract a fee of Sh70. Currently, the charge is a flat rate of Sh50.
Doubling the fee will add to the cost of accessing at least 30,000 government services on eCitizen, but will hand a windfall to the firms behind the platform.
The push to double the fee is part of regulations that the State is banking on to anchor the convenience charge in law, a year after the High Court declared the fee illegal.
Audit reveals financial irregularity and data breach in e-Citizen
“There shall be a convenience fee charged for services offered by national or county government entities onboarded on the system,” Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi says in the Public Finance Management (E-Citizen System Management) Regulations, 2026.
“The convenience fee shall not be charged for any services in the system that are offered free of charge.”
The lowest convenience fee will be Sh5 for services costing between Sh100 and Sh499, while all those costing less than Sh99 will be free.
Some of the services that cost more than Sh500 on eCitizen include business registrations, passport applications, amendments to birth and death certificates and re-registration of birth.
The increased fee will increase the cost of eCitizen services but will hand a windfall to the three companies behind the platform.
An audit report shows that the shadowy firms behind the eCitizen platform raked in Sh1.45 billion in the year ended June 2024.
The platform is run by a consortium of three companies, with one offering technical support and onboarding services, while the other aggregates payments and handles incoming payments to the State. The third company handles communications such as bulk SMSs.
The three firms are Pesaflow Limited, Webmasters Kenya and Olivetree Limited. The government launched eCitizen in 2023.
Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu raised concerns over the influence that the three have on eCitizen, adding that the lack of a backup system is a significant threat.
President William Ruto recently said that at least 30,000 government services are now offered via eCitizen, with daily collections at Sh2 billion.
Dr Ruto has on several occasions lauded eCitizen, saying that it has removed bottlenecks that hampered access to thousands of government services.
Government moves to double controversial e-Citizen convenience fee
However, Kenyans have decried the convenience fee, especially when the charge is almost as high as the service being offered.
The regulations, currently before the public for scrutiny, come a year after the High Court declared the Sh50 convenience fee illegal, discriminatory, as amounting to a double charge and one that was adopted without public participation.
The government subsequently filed a petition at the Court of Appeal but lost it in November last year, triggering the latest push to anchor the fee in regulations.
The State had argued that Kenyans risked missing out on thousands of government services unless the High Court ruling was reversed, adding that the convenience fee caters for maintenance and contractual obligations.
Mr Mbadi says that all national and county government entities offering services via eCitizen will cease to operate any revenue bank accounts for the collection of funds.
