Welcome to Apple Support Communities
Did you purchase iPhoto from the Mac App Store (or did it come with your Mac)? If your Mac was bought after the OS X Lion release (July 2011), maybe iPhoto is hidden in your purchases list. To see if you can unhide it, follow these steps -> Hide and unhide purchases in the Mac App Store - Apple Support Then, try updating it again. If it does not work, contact with the Mac App Store support team -> http://www.apple.com/support/mac/app-store/contact.
Note that OS X El Capitan includes the Photos app, that replaces iPhoto. You can find it in the Applications folder, and if you do not like it, your Mac will keep a copy of your iPhoto library in order to use it again.