A Parliamentary Committee has recommended the National Treasury to address payment limitations on the E-Citizen platform to ensure that Kenyans abroad can seamlessly utilize debit and credit cards for service payments.
National Assembly’s Committee on Defence, Intelligence and Foreign Relations chaired by Nelson Koech (Belgut) last week met to review a report of the Committee on its participation in the Mobile Consular Service Exercise in Tokyo and Osaka, Japan.
As part of the Committee’s mandate to oversight the State Department on Diaspora Affairs in particular the Mobile Consular Services (MCS) programme that seeks to address the needs of Kenyans in the Diaspora by offering (Identity card (ID) application and replacement, passport application, renewal and replacement, Birth certificate application and replacement, Certificate of Good Conduct application and Marriage Certificate application.
In the Report, the Committee has directed the State Department for Diaspora Affairs to ensure the timely finalization of budgeting and funding for MCS activities prior to execution to mitigate facilitation challenges encountered during service delivery.
The Report in part reads, “live fingerprint capture for Identity Card applications needs to be accelerated by the National Registration Bureau to speed up data capture and enhance accuracy thereby reducing rejections.”
Committee Members also emphasized the necessity for the E-Citizen platform to offer prompt and responsive 24-hour customer support to bolster user experience.
The Defence, Intelligence and Foreign Relations Committee is expected to table the Report in the coming days.
Kevin Wachira
