Inside e-Citizen deal granting developers leeway to shut system

An investigation has been opened over the e-citizen platform contract that grants the developers the freedom to pull down the system without any repercussions should their contract be terminated.

The revelations come at a time that MPs are raising concern over the move to hand over government revenue streams to be overseen by non-civil servants.

Documents seen by The Star show that the contract signed on May 25, 2023, cannot be terminated for its entire term.

The probe by the Administration and Internal Security Committee shows that the contract for support and maintenance costs of the platform mandates the organisation to pull down e-citizen, ‘howsoever’ the termination occurs.

“In the event of termination, howsoever occurring, the Suppliers shall be entitled to rescind, withdraw, or otherwise uninstall all their proprietary infrastructure and resources, including all technical infrastructure, whether software or otherwise, that may have been deployed in order to enable them to provide their services under this Agreement,” the contract reads.

Despite giving grounds on the circumstances that the termination can occur, the contract exempts M/S Webmasters Kenya Limited, Pesa Flow Limited, and Olive Tree Media Limited from any liability.

“In the event of termination, howsoever occurring, the Purchaser shall and hereby undertakes to fully indemnify the Suppliers against any claims against loss of data, system downtime, or unavailability.”

Members of the committee are now raising concerns over the terms of the agreement governing the e-Citizen platform.

Despite the grilling session failing to progress due to late submission of documents, a source at the center of the probe warned that the current contract structure gives developers sweeping powers in the event of termination, potentially leaving critical government services exposed.

“Without the Attorney General and the respective Principal Secretaries signing this agreement, this one has been signed by a very small number of people. This thing is an agreement for webmasters to establish a kind of platform from which they declare what they want. To grasp and take what they want,” said the Source.

The contract further says that it remains the sole responsibility of ICTA to ensure the relevant support and maintenance is being provided to the system at all times, and thus, it remains its sole obligation to ensure a transition between suppliers is effectively implemented.

The contract for the provision of support and maintenance for the e-citizen platform framework was signed between the ICT Authority and M/S Webmasters Kenya Limited in consortium with Pesa Flow Limited and Olive Tree Media Limited.

During a parliamentary session, they agreed to postpone the probe due to lack of enough time to go through the documentation.

“I just wanted to raise a point of order. I think, Chair, since we did not invite the Treasury, and they have no submission to present to us, it would only be an order, Chair. We have called them an opportunity to come before the Committee,” said Homabay Town MP Peter Kaluma.

Narok West MP Gabriel Tongoyo, who chaired the committee, noted that given the importance of the matter and that some of the documents presented were just given minutes before the start of the meeting, we are forced to adjourn.

“I've made it clear earlier that, of course, this is a document that we have been asking for for the last two months or so, which will have really helped members to have been actually in better understanding. Maybe we can be able to step down and have members go through the contract document, because that was the whole big issue,” said Tongoyo.