Kenyans turning 18 will soon get a two-in-one alert: one text to their parents that the new national ID is ready for pickup, and another to the young adult confirming they have automatically joined the voters’ roll.
Isaac Ochieng, Director-General of eCitizen Services, laid out the plan during a Thursday morning interview on Radio Generation.
“Where we are now, if you attain the age of 18, we will notify your parents on their phone because we have their details. We will tell them that the national ID for your son or daughter is ready for collection,” he said.
The same message to the ID owner will carry an extra line: “You are automatically registered as a voter.”
The note will also invite the recipient to confirm or change the polling station where they prefer to vote. Ochieng said the shift ends the era of queueing at voter-registration centres.
The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) will still manage the final register, but names will flow in directly from the national ID database.
“There will be no manual voter registration. Everything will be automatic,” he stressed.
No timelines have been provided, and no formal notification has been offered by the government, owing to the magnitude of this massive shift.
The announcement builds on a promise made two weeks ago by Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen that new IDs will be issued within three to seven days, bring down the weeks-long waiting period for most Kenyans.
He revealed that the government will facilitate this using portable biometric scanners that will transmit instantly to Nairobi for immediate processing.
