Why eCitizen portal has been down and not working for days

eCitizen portal which is used to facilitate a number of government services like passport application, certificate of good conduct application, business registration, NTSA license renewal, etc. has been down for now 3 days in a row. An attempt to access the website throws a connection time-out error or site can’t be reached

An update from the eCitizen account on Twitter indicates that the website has been down due to a technical hitch.

Many Kenyans have raised complaints on social media about the eCitizen website not working for the past three days with no response from the government or responsible ministry on whether the downtime is due to scheduled maintenance or an ongoing upgrade. There is also no update on when the website is expected to be back online.

The situation is especially concerning given that President Ruto, had recently announced plans to bring more government services online through the eCitizen portal as part of his government’s efforts to digitize government services.

A major website like eCitizen being down for all those hours raises doubts about the government’s preparedness to fully digitize its services.

Cabinet Secretary for Information and Communication, Eliud Owalo whose ministry is responsible for digitizing government services has not spoken about the matter despite being active on Twitter and posting updates about other matters.

UPDATE 1: CS Owalo has admitted that eCitizen portal has been experiencing cyber attacks in the form of DDoS attacks.

UPDATE 2: The eCitizen website is now back online and with additional layers of security.