Safaricom to defend itself in eCitizen case

Mobile phone service provider Safaricom, and a firm that developed the eCitizen platform have been allowed to defend themselves against claims by a company that had been contracted to collect money raised through the platform.

High Court Judge Fred Ochieng has stopped Goldrock Capital Ltd from claiming Sh127,850,950, saying some of the defences filed in court raise issues, which need to be argued to determine the legitimacy of the claim.

eCitizen is an online portal through which the government provides essential services such as applications for passports, driving licences, business registration certificates, vehicle logbooks and title deeds.

Goldrock had initially obtained a court judgment allowing it to access Sh128 million that it had collected before being locked out of the M-Pesa pay bill account in April, 2017.

The judgment had been entered against Safaricom, Webmasters Kenya Ltd, and Webmasters Africa Ltd, which had failed to defend the case against them.

Goldrock sued the Treasury, Webmasters Africa, and Webmasters Kenya, which developed eCitizen portal, for denying it access to the website’s mobile money (M-Pesa) paybill number that receives millions of shillings every day from Kenyans seeking government services.

Justice Ochieng noted that among the issues that need to be addressed is the question regarding the legitimacy of Goldrock’s role in the collection of revenue for the government.

Goldrock has since 2014 collected over Sh5.6 billion under the eCitizen platform.