Ecitizen temporarily collapsed, halting activities at the Nairobi National Park. The platform’s collapse hindered the payment of entry fees causing long queues and disappointing hundreds of tourists.
Due to the numerous transactions happening through the system nationwide, the platform collapsed temporarily. Tourists expressed their frustrations via social media after long lines had to be endured when the system collapsed.
Consequently, the tourists had to endure long lines for long hours before getting park access.
President William Ruto had earlier issued a directive ordering all government agencies to onboard their services onto the E-Citizen platform. Consequently, too many transactions and activities were happening on one platform, causing its temporary collapse.
Tourists are supposed to book their entry through eCitizen and then pay using the government’s only restricted pay bill, 222222. This paybill was enforced after the President directed all government agencies to use one paybill.
Read Also: Kenyans Protest Move by KWS to Increase Park Entry Fees
“Please get the Citizen platform registration process sorted. This is Nairobi National Park Saturday morning, a bigger number of visitors are foreigners,” Friends of the park advised on X.
Some tourists were said to have waited more than six hours in the queue before they received service to enter the park. In addition, the long lines led to some tourists exiting the venue.
“Unfortunately, some genius somewhere decided that all several thousands of GoK services, including KWS park entrance fees, must be paid for through one pay bill number,” Polycarp Hinga, social media influencer and strategist mentioned.
Subscribe to Switch TV
KWS transition to eCitizen
The tourists also advised the Ministries of ICT and Tourism to work on updated systems to fast-track and enhance them. Paul Jinaro, Kenya Wildlife Service Communications Director, admitted the prevailing challenge but mentioned that the service would be restored.
“What we have been experiencing since we adopted the new payment system on e-Citizen is what we can refer to as teething problems as a result of technological changeover,” Jinaro explained.
Jinaro further explained that the technical hitch was due to the new payment system but the KWS would fast-track the changes in the system. He mentioned that the situation was worse days ago when KWS reverted to it for the first time.
” We can also report that we have seen significant improvements as many visitors continue to use the system to pay for the park fees,” Jinaro mentioned.
The directive was issued due to the need to digitize all government activities and transactions which would help reduce corruption within the agencies. This transition however well intended has come with a few hitches along the way.
Read Also: Check Out President Ruto’s Most Popular Nicknames
