Court Intervenes After Ruto Angrily Calls Out 34 CEOs Over eCitizen Directive

The institution now wants the court to issue orders quashing the gazette notice and the directive issued by President Ruto to the government agencies to onboard services to the e-citizen payment platform.

In the ruling, the High Court further prohibited the President from taking any disciplinary action, as he had threatened, against the 34 parastatal chiefs who failed to comply with his directive.

''Pending the inter partes hearing and determination of the Application dated December 5, 2024, a conservatory order be and is hereby issued prohibiting the removal from office of the 35th to 68th Interested Parties or the initiation or continuation of any disciplinary action against them based on the grounds of their failure to implement and/or operationalize the directive issued on November 28, 2024 with respect to the 1st to 34th Interested Parties being directed to compulsorily onboard and/or migrate to the eCitizen Services Platform,'' the Court ruled.

The court directed the petitioners to serve the application and the orders to the Office of the President and all the interested parties by the end of Wednesday, December 11. 

''The Petitioners shall serve the Application, the Petition, and this Court Order on the Respondents and Interested Parties by close of business December 13, 2024, and they shall thereafter file an Affidavit(s) of Service in that regard by close of business December 16,'' it added.

President Ruto on November 28 lost his cool against the 34 companies, accusing the directors of key agencies within his government of undermining government efforts in the digitisation of government services.

Speaking during the First Anniversary of the eCitizen Directorate, at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) in Nairobi, the President revealed that "These entities are yet to comply with my directive that their services, payments and revenues must be on eCitizen platform so that Treasury can follow on revenues that are being collected by the government."

As a result, Ruto directed the agencies to comply with the directive in one week or face consequences. ''They have one week to comply, otherwise, they can make use of the door,'' Ruto warned.

He also uncovered a scheme whereby some state agencies had onboarded themselves on eCitizen, only to craft shady ways including retreating to old payment models, to escape being noticed by the Treasury.

''We still have government agencies that have come to the eCitizen platform, but retreat once in a while to go and use alternative means of payment including games with some banks,'' he noted.

The President therefore ordered the directors of the notorious companies to adhere to a time frame of three days and submit to his office a report on the same.