The Kenyan laws allow any citizen who wishes to change their names to do so through a legal process whereby the applicants are advised seek guidance from an advocate because the procedure is ambiguous in some way being that it is not a one-step process. However, there are exceptions where one can be restricted to change their names in circumstances where the chosen name.
i) Is offensive or vulgar.
ii)Promotes criminal activities, racial, religious or political hatred.
iii)Includes symbols or punctuation marks.

In addition, there are several documents required for the process to be complete depending on the reason for changing the name. They include.
-A letter from the chief, deed poll and an affidavit, two passport size photo, marriage, birth or baptism certificate, school leaving certificates, copies of parents ID cards and a witness who has known the applicant for a minimum period of 10 years.

The legal procedure:
i) Visit the Registrar General Departments and get a copy of the deed poll at a fee for its registration.
ii) Complete the deed poll which is prescribed as Form 1 of the Regulations to the Act.
iii)The next step is to make an application for the registration which is prescribed Form A in the Registration of Documents Regulations.
iv) Attach the deed poll with a birth certicicate of the applicant.
v) A statutory declaration follows which is sworn by a person resident in Kenya and personally knows the applicant.
vi) The documents are then presented to the registrar of documents for registration.
vii) Upon registration, the deed poll is advertised in the Kenya gazette whereby at that point the change of name is presumed to have been executed.