Kenyans will soon start receiving digital notifications once their National Identification cards are ready for collection, the Director General of eCitizen Services, Isaac Ochieng, has announced.
Speaking on Thursday morning during an interview on Radio Generation, Ochieng said the new system will ensure that once a person turns 18, a text message will be sent to their parents’ phone informing them that their child’s ID is ready.
“Where we are now, if you attain the age of 18, we will notify your parents on their phone because we already have their details. We will tell them that the national ID for your son or daughter is ready for collection,” Ochieng explained.
He added that the ID owner will also get a separate notification confirming that they have automatically been registered as a voter.
As part of the digital reforms, the government is linking national IDs directly to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) register.
This means that once an individual turns 18, they will automatically be enrolled as a voter without having to visit a registration centre.
“The ID owner will also get a notification that they are automatically registered as a voter. We will then ask them to indicate where they would like to vote, and that is where they will be assigned.
There will be no manual voter registration everything will be automatic. However, the voter register will still be maintained by IEBC,” Ochieng clarified.
This digital shift comes just weeks after the government announced faster turnaround times for issuing IDs.
Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen revealed on August 5 that new mobile live capture units portable, battery-powered machines designed to capture data quickly have been acquired.
Murkomen said the captured data will now be transmitted electronically for processing, cutting down the waiting period to between three and seven days for new IDs.
The government hopes the new system will make identification and voter registration more seamless, efficient, and accessible for all Kenyans.