IMAP & POP mailboxes

Create official government mailboxes and connect them to Outlook, Apple Mail, Thunderbird, or mobile mail apps.

Taifa Mail can turn an address on your government domain into a full official mailbox. Officers can open the mailbox in Outlook, Apple Mail, Thunderbird, or a mobile mail app over IMAP or POP, with outgoing mail sent over SMTP.

The one setting block you need

Every mailbox uses the exact same servers. Only the username and password change per mailbox.

Setting	Incoming (IMAP)	Incoming (POP)	Outgoing (SMTP)
Server	`mail.govconnect.ke`	`mail.govconnect.ke`	`mail.govconnect.ke`
Port	`993`	`995`	`587`
Security	SSL / TLS	SSL / TLS	STARTTLS
Username	the full address, e.g. `info@health.go.ke`	same	same
Password	the mailbox password (below)	same	same

Use IMAP (993) unless you have a specific reason not to: it keeps mail on the server and in sync across every device. POP (995) downloads and is single-device. Both work.

Step 1: Get the mailbox and its password

Mailboxes are provisioned per address. There are two ways to create one.

From the Taifa Mail team / your admin

If Taifa Mail or your institution admin set your domain up, ask for a mailbox on the address you want, for example info@health.go.ke, ps@ministry.go.ke, or support@county.go.ke. You will be given the address and a password that is shown only once. Store it in your password manager immediately.

Provision it yourself

If you manage the domain, go to Mailboxes in the dashboard and click New mailbox:

Pick the hosted domain and the local part (the bit before @).
Click Allocate (or Create mailbox on the domain detail page).
The credentials panel appears with the server settings above and a one-time app password. Copy it now: it cannot be shown again. If you lose it, mint a new app password from the mailbox page and update your mail client.

The app password is separate from your govconnect.ke OAuth login and from any SMTP credential. It is only for this mailbox in webmail or a mail client.

Step 2: Add the account in your mail client

The wizard in every client asks for the same values from the table above. Pick IMAP (not Exchange or the app's own service) when asked for the account type.

Outlook (classic desktop)

File -> Add Account -> Advanced options -> Let me set up my account manually -> IMAP.
Incoming: mail.govconnect.ke, port 993, SSL. Outgoing: mail.govconnect.ke, port 587, STARTTLS.
Username is the full address; password is the mailbox password. Finish.

New Outlook (Windows) and Outlook on the web do not offer a manual IMAP setup and will not add a Taifa Mail mailbox. Use classic Outlook, Apple Mail, Thunderbird, or your phone instead. Modern Outlook only accepts its own Microsoft accounts.

Apple Mail (Mac) and iPhone / iPad

Mail -> Settings -> Accounts -> Add Account -> Other -> Add Mail Account (on iPhone: Settings -> Mail -> Accounts -> Add Account -> Other).
Enter your name, the full address, and the mailbox password.
Choose IMAP. Incoming and outgoing host are both mail.govconnect.ke; username is the full address; password is the mailbox password. Apple fills the ports automatically.

Thunderbird

Account Settings -> Account Actions -> Add Mail Account.
Enter name, address, password, then Configure manually.
Incoming IMAP mail.govconnect.ke 993 SSL/TLS; Outgoing SMTP mail.govconnect.ke 587 STARTTLS; authentication Normal password; username the full address. Re-test and Done.

Android (Gmail app or any mail app)

Add account -> Other / Personal (IMAP), enter the address and mailbox password, then set both servers to mail.govconnect.ke (incoming 993 SSL, outgoing 587 STARTTLS).

Sending: which server to use

Your mailbox sends through mail.govconnect.ke:587, authenticated with the mailbox password and signed for your domain, so it works out of the box in the clients above. Programmatic sending (broadcasts, or transactional mail over your SMTP credential or the API) uses the same host, authenticated with an SMTP credential or API key instead of the mailbox password. Both paths sign with the DKIM key you already published, so either is safe.

What lands where

A message to your mailbox address can arrive in up to three places, by design:

Webmail at mail.govconnect.ke (same mailbox over the browser).
Your mail client, over IMAP or POP.
A forwarding destination (another address or HTTPS endpoint), if you set up a forwarding rule for that address.

Read state syncs between webmail and IMAP clients connected to the same mailbox.

Troubleshooting

"Cannot verify server identity" / certificate warning. The server must be mail.govconnect.ke exactly: the certificate is issued for that host, so any other name (an old mx. hostname, or your bare domain) fails the check.

"Password incorrect" / login fails. Use the app password (shown once at creation), not your govconnect.ke login and not an SMTP credential. If it was lost, mint a new app password on the mailbox page and update the client.

Outlook will not let me add the account. You are on new Outlook or Outlook web, which has no manual IMAP option. Switch to classic Outlook or another client (see the note above).

The account adds but no mail appears. New mail lands in the mailbox within a few seconds of delivery. Hit send/receive or pull to refresh. If a whole domain receives nothing, confirm its MX points at Taifa Mail (see Inbox overview).