e-Citizen is arguably one of the most used websites in the country as it houses government services online. The portal ensures citizens, non-citizens, and business entities can access government services online at a fee.
While almost every Kenyan is familiar with the e-citizen platform, only a few know the brains behind it. Webmasters Limited created the platform under the leadership of its founder and CEO, James Ayugi.
Ayugi is a tech guru whose life revolves around creating and managing systems that enhance efficiency in different sectors.
Away from work, only a little is known about Ayugi as he's managed to keep his life private.
Creating e-Citizen
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Appearing in different interviews, Ayugi opened up on the journey of creating e-Citizen, noting that the idea was born in 2008 during the late former President Mwai Kibaki's administration.
Back then, former President Uhuru Kenyatta was finance minister and launched an e-registry, hoping that Kenya would one day have a system where Kenyans could pay for government services electronically.
Between 2008 and 2012, there was little development of e-Citizen, but things picked pace when the new administration led by Uhuru Kenyatta took power in 2013
File image of James Ayugi. [Photo: Courtesy]
Uhuru's teams promised to digitize government services during the campaigns, so Webmasters were invited to present a system to help solve the issue.
Following a successful presentation, the team developed the e-Citizen platform, which went live for the first time in June 2014, with NTSA being the first agency to onboard its services to the platform.
Over the years, the platform has grown and features more government services such as registration of persons, immigration services, NHIF services, business registration, and social services, among others.
e-Citizen Ownership and Data Security
Regarding the ownership of the platform, Ayugi noted that his team signed a handover agreement with the government, in which they'll be transferring the IP rights of the platform to the government.
"In legal terms, the government owns 100 percent of the eCitizen ecosystem, the ownership was transferred through the agreement we had," Ayugi revealed.
Being a portal for government services, the platform has a lot of private data from users, which Ayugi says is safe, as a department can only access relevant data.
He notes that even developers cannot access users' private data.
