Foreigners to be issued with visas on arrival as eCitizen system faces hitches
By Wycliffe Nyamasege, July 27, 2023
The government has announced service interruption in the processing of e-visa following a system hitch on the eCitizen platform.
In a circular addressed to diplomatic missions and international organizations on Thursday, the Ministry of Foreign and Diaspora Affairs said all travellers will be issued with visas upon arrival at Kenya’s entry points
“The Ministry of Foreign and Diaspora Affairs of the Republic of Kenya presents its compliments to all Diplomatic Missions and International Organizations in Kenya and has the honour to inform that there is currently a challenge in the Government e-citizen platform which is impacting processing of e-visa.
“Therefore, travellers will be issued visa upon arrival at all entry points to Kenya,” the circular reads.
The government also extended the advisory to all airlines with travellers destined for Kenya.
“The Ministry of Foreign and Diaspora Affairs of the Republic of Kenya avails itself of this opportunity to renew to all Diplomatic Missions and International Organizations in Kenya the assurances of its highest consideration,” the circular adds.
The eCitizen portal has been experiencing system glitches following an alleged cyber attack.
Earlier, ICT CS Eliud Owalo dismissed claims that the platform had been hacked.
In a statement, the CS clarified that the attacks, also targeting the private sector, were unsuccessful and no data was compromised as alleged on a section of social media.
“Over the past one week, there have been unsuccessful cyber attacks attempts targeting both the Government and the Private sectors. The eCitizen Portal is among the targets of these unsuccessful attacks,” Owalo confirmed.
According to the CS, the attack on the eCitizen platform entailed an unsuccessful attempt to overload the system through extraordinary requests, with the intention of clogging it.
He, however, assured that the platform’s technical teams blocked the source IP address where the requests were emanating from, preventing a possible data breach.
“For clarity, both the privacy and security of data were not compromised. The system was not hacked,” Owalo stated.
He assured that efforts are ongoing to stabilise the platform that offers over 5,000 government services from ministries, county governments and agencies.
“As a consequence of the attack efforts, Owalo said, the system has been experiencing intermittent interruptions affecting the normal speed in accessing services on the platform. These attempts have, however, been rebuffed by the security systems and applications in place. Shortly, we will revert to optimal utilization levels,” he said.