Should we blame the principals for illegal levies or should we blame the government for delayed capitation? The president was very authoritative on February 07, 2004 on the payment of school fees through e-citizen, without any public participation and its causing a lot of diverse views among citizens.
This comes months after the new e-citizen charges were gazetted last year, some were suspended as illegal by the judiciary for instance the new charges for replacing a national identity card. The high court suspends Education ministry directive requiring payment of fees and other levies in public schools through e-citizen. The council of governors also rejects the e-citizen new proposed payments.
In his defense the president claims that payment of school fees through e-citizen will be one way to close corruption cartels and vowed to crash alleged resistance by corruption cartels. What about private schools will they also be enrolled in the payment method?
Bumula mp Jack Wamboka, who criticized the presidents move and claimed that the move will affect many parents. He said that the move is out of pure greed and that the president should curb his appetite for money.
Many students are reported to not have yet joined form one due to lack of school fees in these harsh economic times. This should be addressed first before even making plans to change the payment process of school fees. This new payment method my create disparities in terms of class and even technology reach in the event of it being passed and if not well checked.
The president may have good will for Kenya but his authoritative tone is contrary to his intentions. Why are there no calls to public participation, considering many students and parents will be involved?
Lets not forget about the promised Huduma numbers that saw the country losing billions to
Technologically are we yet there as Kenyans?
In his speech the president claims that the new payment of school fees will be paid through one national paybill as opposed to the more than three thousand paybills. The innovators of e-citizen claim tat the government fully owns it, and no many will go to the platform. He said that only the data will be shown in the government data records and the money will directly go to the recipients bank account.
Initially coined by who former president Uhuru Kenyatta, the fully digitalization of government services will start with the payment of school fees through e-citizen. The president should also talk about data protection since failure to do so it can lead to cybersecurity issues such as hacking, loss of information etc.
A lot of criticism has been raised by many different players in the country for example many parents feel like this will be an attack to students from needy backgrounds. Most parents from several areas in Kenya claim that most pay school fees through direct services to schools or take food stuffs like cereals and firewood. This posing problem to them in the event of passing of the e-citizen payment method.
The roll out is said to start at national high school level descending to the subcounty schools and then to other learning institutions. For this to happen a lot of time will be used by students, additional transactional fee depending on the amount one is paying. Its good also to consider that not all households that own smartphones or an internet connection, also not all parents especially needy backgrounds are computer literate.
So, its crucial for government to consider all of the above before making changing in one of the simplest methods known to Kenyans and its worth noting that it’s a good initiative. Before making changes let there be public participation, parliamentary dialogues and also transparency on the new changes , otherwise this scare away already overtaxed Kenyans leading to termination of a good probable cause.
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