Ruto says school fees payment via e-Citizen is a must

Ruto says school fees payment via e-Citizen is a must

Ruto says school fees payment via e-Citizen is a must

Declaring on Wednesday that all school tuition must be paid via the digital network e-Citizen, President William Ruto said that this progress could not be stopped.According to him, the digital platform 222222 offers a transparent and responsible means of guaranteeing that school principals refrain from imposing unauthorized fees on already burdened parents.

Speaking on a day when the Nairobi High Court temporarily barred users from the platform, the President reaffirmed that the government is committed to ensuring that government services are digitalized.

During his state visit, President Ruto was speaking to Kenyans living in Japan. Perhaps you’ve heard the most recent news on Kenya’s school fees. We are demanding that e-Citizen be used to pay for a portion of the boarding school tuition paid by parents, Ruto stated.

According to him, the new policy will do away with the unlawful levies that some schools impose by mandating that students pay their school tuition via the government’s digital network, e-Citizen. Ruto stated, “We want to reduce and eventually end them because we realize there are illegal levies charged by the Board of Management of Schools that are prone to abuse.The cash payments system is slick and frequently provides a channel for corruption,” he continued. Technology will enable us to do away with this,” he declared.

He ⁠reiterated that the gains made in the last one year are immense which should not be wished away. He noted that reduction of more than 3,000 pay bills in government to one has helped eliminate theft. “When I came into office, it was not possible to pay for any government service with a credit card or any mechanism rather than a cash system. Now we have gone completely the opposite,” he said.

“For purposes of accountability, transparency and tracing of records it will be the norm not to pay in cash.”

The government’s decision that school fees be paid through e-citizen was first communicated to all principals on National schools by Principal Secretary, Basic Education, Belio Kipsang n January 31. The principals were to submit bank accounts so that parents could pay boarding fees through the government digital platform. Ruto added that Kenyans in diaspora can also transact government business through e-Citizen and pay for electricity and water bills from the comfort of their homes. He said the government is creating opportunities for skilled youth both locally and abroad.

“To guarantee that students have access to education, we spend over Sh650 billion annually on education, spanning from primary to university levels. Therefore, it is crucial to use that money wisely in order to act morally. We need to find a way to monitor these enormous resources,” he continued.