I have a kanban board where I want to add story points

[Inez Hallifax]

I can add story points field but it will not let me add story points to individual issues - it does not have story points estimate or estimate options available either

I am on 

Jira v8.16.0

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Kanban does not have estimates, each card is the estimate.

You can put estimates on issues that appear in a Kanban board, add the custom field to the create, edit and view screens and you'll be able to do that.  But the board isn't going to look at them.