The government has waived the national identification card replacement fee to ensure no one is denied the opportunity to register as a voter.
This means that citizens will no longer pay to replace lost or damaged national IDs until after the 2027 General Elections, in an effort to ensure no eligible voter is disenfranchised.
Speaking during the Pentecostal Assemblies of God (PAG) centenary celebrations in Nyang’ori, Vihiga County, on Saturday, President Ruto said the government would temporarily suspend the Sh1,000 replacement fee, acknowledging that many Kenyans had been locked out of voter registration due to financial constraints.
“We will ensure that no one will be prevented from registering as a voter because of lacking an ID. For now, until after the 2027 elections, replacement of IDs will be free,” the President said.
The decision reverses a policy President Ruto himself defended, which his government had imposed a fee to discourage what he termed the culture of carelessness in handling identification documents.
“We said when you become lazy and lose your ID, to eradicate the culture of losing and replacing, we introduced a fee. But because you have requested a waiver, let me go and think about it or we waive it. You have put me in a dire situation, telling me to remove the replacement fee so that you can vote for me. That's tempting,” he said.
The announcement is expected to ease pressure on millions of Kenyans, particularly the youth, who rely on national IDs to access government services, employment, and register as voters.
In March 2025, President Ruto, while touring Kibra slums in Nairobi, had earlier directed that all Kenyans be issued with national identity cards at no cost.
“Every Kenyan has a right to an identity. We will end the culture of favouritism and long delays in ID issuance,” he said at the time.
Kenyans were paying Sh300 for new ID applications, a fee that was initially set to rise to Sh1,000 before the government reversed a controversial gazette notice issued on November 7, 2023.
The same notice had proposed increasing the replacement fee to Sh2,000, later reduced to KSh1,000 following public outcry.
The move comes as the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) intensifies its ongoing voter registration drive, which has already seen 7,048 new registrations and 259 voter transfers in just four days.
IEBC Chairperson Erastus Ethekon described the trend as encouraging, noting that the Commission was witnessing progressive growth in the exercise.
“Nairobi County has recorded the highest number of new voters with 1,597, followed by Mombasa (556), Kiambu (386), and Kisii (312),” Mr Ethekon said in a statement.
