Ruto's One Paybill Number Challenged In Court
They argued that as there is no mechanism for enforcing accountability, Kenyans will suffer if the court does not issue orders prohibiting the implementation of the directive.
Marvin Chege 
President William Ruto's government has encountered a hurdle after the directive compelling all government services to be consolidated into one pay bill number was challenged in court.
According to a petition signed by professors Frederick Ogola and Bernard Okello, the shutting down of 1,488 pay bills to allow the integration of all government services into one payment channel is unconstitutional.
Ogola and Okello claimed that there was no public participation or framework prior to the implementation of the singular digital payment system.
They argued that as there is no mechanism for enforcing accountability, Kenyans will suffer if the court does not issue orders prohibiting the implementation of the directive.
A court gavel. /TWITTER
They also argued that a single digital payment does not promote the distinctness of national and county governments.
Duty Judge Hedwig Ongudi has certified the matter as urgent and ordered that the petition be served on the respondents. The matter will be mentioned on September 4, 2023, to confirm compliance and for further directions.
On Monday, August 7, the government acted on President Ruto's earlier directive and shut down the over 1,400 pay bills in a move geared at consolidating all payments to one channel.
In a statement, Immigration and Citizens Services Principal Secretary, Julius Bitok observed that going forward, all government services payments will be made through one pay bill number —222222.
PS Bitok directed all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) that were yet to comply with the president's directive to do so without further delay.
Speaking during the launch of Gava Mkononi, a mobile app version of the e-Citizen platform on Friday, June 30, President Ruto had expressed that the government was unable to account for some of the pay bill numbers in use by government agencies.
"There is a dedicated government pay channel, 222222. The expectation of the government is that all government revenue must now use the pay channel so that Treasury can have sight of every government service that is paid for.
"I am going to be making an announcement here that in the next 90 days, all other pay bills must be shut down because we have a problem with some of the PayBills that we cannot account for. We have close to over 1,000 PayBills some of which we don't have sight of. They must now be closed," he announced.
