On Friday, the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), announced the official Census date.
The annual Kenya Population and Housing Census is set to take place on the night of 24th August 2019.
According to KNBS, through their twitter account, this will be the 8th census to be conducted in Kenya.
A population census is the process of enumerating all people within the boundaries of a country at a specified time. The process involves collecting, compiling, evaluating, analysing, and publishing demographic, social, and/or economic data.
Census is carried out every ten years. Previous censuses were carried out in 1948, 1962, 1969, 1979, 1989, 1999 and 2009.
Citizens are encouraged to be indoors on the day of the census to ensure correct data is collected at the same time to ensure everyone participates.
KNBS further assured Kenyans that the information collected by the Census officials will be kept confidential.
"The census information will be held in strict confidence by KNBS and will be used for statistical purposes only. All census officials will swear an "Oath of Secrecy" as required by the law. Individual particulars will not be made public," assured KNBS through a tweet.
Past reports by Director General Zachary Mwangi, are that all is set for the paperless exercise that will be undertaken as from August 24, 2019.
“We’re very confident about our data-capture program,” the KNBS DG stated during the July 8, 2019 briefing at the Kenyatta International Convention Center (KICC) in Nairobi.
Moi University and the Jomo Kenya University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) will assemble 164,700 data-capture devices at the cost of Sh15,000 each.
Mwangi said the decision was deliberate because they believed that the country has the capacity to assemble the devices.
He further added that it was also a way to create employment for young people.
“Build Kenya, buy Kenya, because if you go to Moi and JKUAT today, you will see the kind of a job those young people are doing. You will also be impressed. So, that was a very strategic decision that we made because we have the capacity and some of these things have been done before in our universities,” he said.
Mwangi revealed that the census will also capture agricultural activities, a component that was not captured in the 2009 census.
“In the previous census we did not collect information on agriculture but this year we have a whole module on agriculture,” he said.
Previous censuses were carried out in 1948, 1962, 1969, 1979, 1989, 1999 and 2009.
