The challenge
The county was collecting revenue across 14 service lines — single business permits, building approvals, land rates, market stall fees, and more. Almost all of it happened in person: residents queued at the county headquarters, paid cash or cheque to a cashier, and received a paper receipt that might or might not be entered into the revenue management system by end of day. The finance department's own estimate was that 18–22% of collections were never formally recorded.
The County Executive Committee had two goals: close the leakage and make services accessible to residents in the sub-counties 80 kilometres away, who currently lost a full day's income to travel for a permit renewal. A World Bank county-digitalisation grant provided the budget — but came with a 14-month delivery mandate and an obligation to demonstrate citizen adoption metrics within six months of launch.
What we built
We designed for the lowest common denominator first: a feature-phone resident with intermittent internet and no smartphone. Every service can be initiated by USSD or SMS. For residents with smartphones, a progressive web app provides a richer experience with document upload, status tracking, and payment history. For those who still prefer to walk in, the county's own clerks use the same portal on desktop — so the queue now feeds the same digital system, not a parallel paper one.
M-Pesa STK push is the primary payment rail. The system pushes a payment request to the citizen's phone the moment an application is approved. Bank paybill codes are available as a fallback. Receipts are generated instantly and sent by SMS — no more cashier dependency. All revenue is recorded in real time, with an executive dashboard that the County Executive and Treasury can check from their phones.
We also built a document-verification integration for the single business permit workflow — the most-applied-for service. Applications are cross-checked against KRA PIN records, NSSF registration, and (for new food-handling businesses) a simple declaration form replacing the previous physical food-safety inspection prerequisite. 74% of SBP renewals now process without manual intervention.
Citizen adoption
220,000 citizens registered in year one — 31% of the county's adult population. The adoption curve was steeper than projected, driven by word of mouth among market traders who noticed that single business permit renewal had gone from a half-day to a ten-minute phone interaction. The county's revenue collection increased 41% in year one against the same period prior, with the finance team attributing roughly half to reduced leakage and half to increased compliance driven by permit reminders sent 60 days before renewal.
"For the first time, the County Executive can see the day's collections by service line, by sub-county, in real time. The leakage conversation has moved from estimates to fact. And the residents' feedback has been overwhelmingly positive."