Miano was responding to woes that hit German Ambassador to Kenya Sebastian Groth on the eCitizen issue after he lamented being stranded at the entrance of the Watamu Marine National Park in Kilifi County.
Tourism and Wildlife Cabinet Secretary Rebecca Miano on Thursday, October 10 took it upon herself to address the challenges faced by Kenyans in accessing eCitizen services, especially while paying to access national parks and game reserves across the country.
Miano was responding to woes that hit German Ambassador to Kenya Sebastian Groth on the eCitizen issue after he lamented being stranded at the entrance of the Watamu Marine National Park in Kilifi County.
Groth shared a photo of himself outside the ticketing office of the park which he expressed fondness of because of snorkelling tours, but challenges in paying for tickets via eCitizen, according to him, have been a pain in the neck.
“I really like Watamu Marine Park for a nice snorkelling tour. But getting the ticket via eCitizen is more difficult than seeing the big fish,” Groth remarked on X.
German Ambassador to Kenya Sebastian Groth (inset) and ticket office at Watamu Marine Park. /ADEN DUALE.SEBASTIAN GROTH (X)
The post drew the attention of netizens, who tagged Miano’s account to demand that she respond, which she did, almost an hour after Groth posted about it.
“Happy Mazingira Day, ambassador. I will take up this to ensure the difficulty is resolved. eCitizen is supposed to be efficient and speedy. Thank you for your feedback,” Miano stated.
The German Ambassador to Kenya later thanked the CS after the matter was solved and stated that he had a good time at the park. “Dear CS Rebecca Miano, Happy Mazingira Day to you and thank you for your reply. We finally had another great Watamu Marine Park experience,” he said.
Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) previously stated that park entries shall be made through the eCitizen platform.
“Polite reminder: All park entry payments shall be made through the eCitizen government platform https://kws.ecitizen.go.ke. Note that other forms of payments shall not be accepted at the KWS Parks, Reserves, and Sanctuaries,” KWS stated on August 29, 2023.
On June 2, 2024, challenges on the eCitizen portal left foreign tourists and Kenyans accessing parks and reserves stranded, outlining the challenges that are likely to arise when government portals go down, especially during peak seasons.
Since President William Ruto announced that all government agencies to onboard the portal in 2023, there have been numerous instances of tourists being stranded outside parks and reserves after eCitizen collapsed.
In August last year, hundreds of tourists, especially foreigners heading to the Nairobi National Park, were pictured stranded outside parks attempting to make payments through the system. This was a result of increased transactions causing the system to collapse. It was hours before KWS resolved the matter.
President Ruto also announced a consolidated pay bill number 222222, to reduce the chances of taxpayers’ money being misappropriated.
