Kenya Moves Towards a National Addressing System as Stakeholders Support Bill

The National Addressing System Bill, 2025, before the National Assembly Departmental Committee on Communication, Information, and Innovation has received a shot in the arm with support from national and county government stakeholders.

In a joint stakeholders’ forum chaired by Hon. John Kiarie, the bill by Hon. John Machua Waithaka got support from the stakeholders, who also gave their inputs to amend various clauses of the Bill that they noted needed strengthening. The National Addressing System will assign an address to every dwelling place and aims to provide an address to every Kenyan. The address will be tied to a geographic location and improve service delivery by the government and other service providers. It will also enhance security, trust, and revenue collection through better identity management of people and businesses. In addition, it will drive the development and uptake of e-commerce through last-mile delivery.

Hon. Kiarie welcomed the support from the stakeholders, saying it gives the committee an opportunity to progress the Bill and harmonize the clauses that the stakeholders raised concern with. “The committee will have to address addressing and naming. Resolving the differences between the Council and CA is why we are here,” said Hon. Kiarie.

The Ministry of Information, Communications, and Digital Economy and the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) were among the key stakeholders who proposed amendments on two clauses, one on the overall responsibility of the National Address System and another on the naming of addressable objects. The Bill by Hon. Machua had proposed the establishment of a National Addressing Council to manage the national addressing system; however, the ministry and CA noted that the establishment of the council to undertake the role already vested with the purview of CA would result in an unnecessary duplication of regulatory mandates, operational inefficiencies, and duplication of public expenditure, a view that was also supported by the Council of Governors.

CA Director General Mr. David Mugonyi noted that naming and addressing are separate and should be treated independently. “The bill should limit its scope to addressing given that naming such as the roads, streets, and public places is provided for under other legislation," noted Mr. Mugonyi.

The Principal Secretary, State Department for Broadcasting and Telecommunication, State Department, Stephen Isaboke, said that when he first joined the ministry, one of the items on his agenda was the National Addressing System. “We went through the Ministry’s bill and the bill by the MP clause by clause, and what came out is that the two bills were so close, and we had to decide. And we decided that we can go to the substance instead of who owns it,” said “This Bill has met the objective of the government and the ministry to have a national addressing system," he added.

Mr. Isaboke noted that the ministry has been working on a National Addressing System Policy and it is committed to fast-tracking it so that when the Bill is enacted, the policy should be ready. Other stakeholders who participated in the engagement were; State Department of Internal and National Security, State Department of Housing and Urban Development, State Department for Lands and Physical Planning, State Department for Roads, and Council of Governors.

The Authority also previously appeared before the Departmental Committee on Finance and National Planning on the Finance Bill 2026 with implications on the ICT sector. The Authority supported the government’s revenue mobilization agenda and sought to ensure that the Finance Bill advanced the Kenya’s digital transformation agenda by fostering affordable devices, ICT infrastructure investment and deepening financial inclusion.

The CA’s submissions were also aligned with the government’s Bottom-up Economic Transformation Agenda, which seeks to expand digital infrastructure, create employment, digitize public services to boost the national economy.