The High Court in Nairobi has temporarily halted a recent government directive that required parents who have their children in national schools to pay school fees through the eCitizen platform.
Justice Chacha Mwita issued the orders on February 7, 2024 following a petition filed by Nakuru doctor Magare Gikenyi on February 6, 2024; with the orders suspending the Circular that Basic Education Principal Secretary Dr. Belio Kipsang issued on January 31, 2024 pending further directions to be issued in the case on February 13, 2024.
“An interim conservatory order is hereby issued suspending the Circular or letter by the Principal Secretary (Belio R Kipsang), Ministry of Education dated 31st January 2024, requiring parents/Guardians and or students to pay fees and or any other levies for all government learning institutions through eCitizen platform or any other digital platform(s) until 13th January 2024, when the court will issue further directions in this petition,” ordered Justice Mwita.
Dr. Gikenyi, based in Nakuru, sued Cabinet Secretaries for National Treasury and Economic Planning and Interior and National Administration and nine others in the case where he is seeking the abolishment of the government’s initiative to pay for all services through the eCitizen platform.
Gikenyi argued that the programme was done without any public participation, saying that the convenience fee of Ksh50 per transaction was “arrived at capriciously, whimsically and without any iota of public participation.”
According to him, parents in rural areas who had been accustomed to paying school fees via non-monetary means (trading maize and beans to the school) will be “locked out through this unfair administrative action.”
Dr. Kipsang issued to all National School Principals through County Directors of Education a Circular instructing them to give the school bank account details for onboarding of their payments into the platform, adding that the move is part of the government’s efforts to onboard all government services onto the eCitizen platform to enhance service delivery.
By Education News reporter
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