University admission and over 1,000 other services could soon be on the government digital platform eCitizen if the current developments are anything to go by.
According to State Department for Immigration and Citizen Services, the move is in line with the Kenya Kwanza government to digitize delivery of all public services.
At the same time, public universities across the country are rushing against time to beat President William Ruto’s deadline.
Immigration and Citizen Services PS Prof Julius Bitok made the announcement while addressing Vice Chancellors (VCs) and other senior administrators from the 47 public universities during a forum in Mlolongo, Athi River.
The agenda of the meeting was to finalize the onboarding of admission procedures and other essential services in line with a Presidential directive to digitalize university services.
Universities Benefits
Further, the PS said that by digitalization, the universities will be able to track online and in real-time their revenues collected from students’ payments and other services offered by the institutions.
Additionally, Bitok said the digitization drive will be linked to the launch of the smart/digital ID and the Unique Personal identifier number later this year.
This comes as the government seeks to make it harder to forge Kenyan registration documents to comply with international travel requirements.
eCitizen government
According to the PS Bitok, over 5,127 government services are currently available on eCitizen and an almost similar number is targeted for online end-to-end availability by December.
President William Ruto gave all public institutions, including universities, an end of-year deadline to digitize their services.
According to President Ruto, digitization will cut the cost on time and money for clients seeking government services.
Further, the campaign is also expected to minimize corruption and pilferage believed to cost the government millions of shillings in lost revenue.
Universities’ Appeal
Vice Chancellors who spoke at the forum appealed to the government to provide free and reliable internet to public institutions to make it easier and affordable for the university community to enjoy online services.
Also, the VCs sought assurances that universities will be able to access on time monies intended for day-to-day operations and other recurrent expenses.
Availing their services online is critical especially for the universities who are expecting the latest batch of new students from next month.
