Comparison

The visitor book, other systems, and NIPE code.

Every estate gate keeps some kind of record. The question for a committee is what that record can answer the morning after something goes wrong: who came in, who invited them, and who let them in.

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Side by side.

“Other systems” means the kinds of visitor management system sold in Kenya, described by how they work, not by name.

The question	Paper visitor book	Other visitor systems	NIPE code
Who the record is about	Whatever the visitor chose to write: any name, any house.	Often the visitor’s own details, typed at a tablet or read from their ID.	The resident who invited them and the officer who let them in. Every code belongs to a house. In pilot
Who can read it	The next visitor, and anyone who photographs the page.	Some systems keep a photograph or a copy of each visitor’s ID.	The officer sees a name and the house, never a phone number, and at most the last few characters of an ID when the property asks for one.
Who is inside right now	It cannot say: exits are rarely written down.	Only if every exit is recorded too.	Every entry and every exit is recorded, so the people inside are the people who have not left. In pilot
What the visitor needs	A pen.	Sometimes an app to install, or a turn at a kiosk.	Only the six-digit code a resident sent them, or the square to scan. Nothing to install.
When the network drops	Nothing changes.	Many stop at the gate until it returns.	The officer’s phone keeps the codes live now and sends each arrival when the network returns.
What goes at the gate	A book and a pen.	Tablets, card readers or turnstiles, often from one supplier.	The officer’s phone. No hardware lock-in.
How long the records last	Until somebody throws the book away.	However long the supplier keeps them.	As many days as the property sets on its own Policy page. Then they are deleted.
Who pays	The property buys the books.	It varies; some charge per visitor or per device.	The property, one monthly bill at a price a house, from the pricing page. Residents, visitors and officers never pay.

“In pilot”: built, and being proven with the first estates.

What the book does well.

It costs almost nothing, it never needs a network, and every officer already knows how to use it. If those were the only questions, the book would win.

It loses on the questions asked after an incident: it records what a visitor said, it shows every visitor’s details to the next one, and it cannot say who is still inside. Why a visitor code beats a paper visitor book.

What to ask any system.

Whoever you choose, ask four things: does the visitor have to install anything; whose details sit on the gate desk; does the gate keep working when the network drops; and can the property decide how long the records are kept, and see them deleted.

The last one matters under the Data Protection Act: the property holds the records, so the committee answers for them. Data protection at the gate.

What NIPE code is not.

NIPE code records and checks access. It does not guard a property, and it is not a substitute for officers, locks or the police. What it adds is a name on every entry: the house that invited the visitor and the officer who let them in.

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The property is billed. The people at the gate never are.