Can You Apply for a Kenyan ID Card Online?

One of the questions I used to get frequently, while working at a cyber café, is as to whether it is possible to apply for a Kenyan ID card online. Unfortunately, the answer (at least for now) is in the negative. So, No, you can’t apply for a Kenyan ID card online, for now. This means that you have to present yourself in person, at a Huduma Center, County Commissioner’s office, Deputy County Commissioner’s Office, Assistant County Commissioner’s Office or Chief’s Office, to apply for a Kenya ID card.

What you can find online, however, are tips to help you in expediting the Kenya ID card application process. Online, you can find tips on the documents you need to go with, while going to apply for a Kenyan ID card. Further, you can find online tips on how to fill in the Kenya ID card application forms, so as to avoid delays. You may also be lucky enough to find tips on how to face the Kenya ID card vetting committee – which you will have to face if you come from a border county or from one of the cosmopolitan counties. You may also be lucky enough to find tips online, on where to go for faster Kenya ID card issuance. This is based on the fact that the people who apply for Kenya ID card at certain locations/offices seem to get their cards slightly faster than individuals who apply for the Kenyan IDs from certain other locations/offices.

One of the probable reasons as to why the Kenyan ID card can’t be applied for online is in the fact that the ID application process has a fingerprinting aspect. So you need to have your fingerprints taken, as part of the Kenya ID application. And your fingerprints can only be taken if you are there in person. 

So it doesn’t matter if you are a Kenya first time ID card applicant, seeking to replace a lost Kenya ID card, or seeking to change Kenya ID card details: you have to present yourself in person.

Thankfully, nowadays you have people at Huduma centers whose only task seems to be that of dealing with ID card applications. As such, you are likely to have an easy time applying for an ID card at a Huduma center. Even at County Commissioners’, Deputy County Commissioners, Assistant County Commissioners’ and Chiefs Offices’, Kenya ID card application is nowadays a fairly easy and straightforward affair, thanks to computerization.