Kenya’s government digital services platform, e-Citizen, has announced plans to introduce commercial advertisements and official notices as part of a broader enhancement of the portal.
e-Citizen announced the platform is currently being upgraded and will have some new features.
“As part of these updates, users may begin to see official notices and announcements, as well as commercial advertisements from approved partners,” the platform wrote in a notice to the public.
The move comes as the platform has become a cornerstone of Kenya’s digital transformation agenda, having successfully migrated more than 22,000 government services from paper-based systems to online platforms.
Being commercial ads, the move will also generate revenue for the platform, which hosts services spanning over 100 government ministries, counties, departments, and agencies.
This is not the first time eCitizen has sought to monetize its growing user base. The platform already charges a flat-rate KES 50 convenience fee on every service accessed, a levy that has proven enormously lucrative.
Back in 2024, Chief of Staff and Head of Public Service Felix Koskei revealed that the portal was pulling in KES 281 million in daily revenue at a time when it had onboarded 16,000 services. In 2025, e-Citizen’s monthly revenue collection hit KES 8.2 billion.
Operators of the platform have not revealed the format in which the ads will be served. The notice states that all services will remain secure and reliable and that users’ privacy will continue to be protected.
The introduction of advertisements on a government platform is likely to spark debate among Kenyans, with some questioning the appropriateness of commercializing a portal used for critical public services.
