Citizen TV's news anchor, Yvonne Okwara, revealed that she recently chased away a team which claimed to been contracted to undertake the 2019 National Population and Housing Census.
Speaking on Thursday, during her prime time news bulletin, when she hosted KNBS Director in charge of Population and Social Statistics Macdonald Obudho, Yvonne disclosed the encounter with the census team.
“The ones who came to my neighbourhood didn’t have this (a reflector jacket). In fact, I can say, and my neighbours are watching on television, we chased them away because we had no idea who they were,” she stated.
Obutho noted that there was a pre-listing exercise, called a pre-enumeration, which began on Thursday and is scheduled to end on Sunday.
The purpose of the exercise, according to Obutho, is for the census officials to establish the number of householders in a given area before the actual count.
“The benefit of that is to help us know how the census officials will be moving around,” he pointed out.
He, however, clarified that any census official visiting residential places ought to have the right identification.
Obutho revealed that all enumerators and supervisors have been issued an official identity badge, with name and ID number. The badges, he noted, have the government, KNBS, and census logo.
"The census staff will also wear orange and maroon reflector jackets with the government, KNBS and census logo. At the back of the jackets, will be the census motto 'jitokeze uhesabike'.
"The ICT supervisor who will accompany the enumerator, in case of ICT issues, will be wearing a maroon fluorescent jacket," Obudho divulged.
In rural areas, village elders or community leaders, who are easily identified by the community, will accompany the census staff during the exercise.
From Saturday, August 24, the process of counting all persons within the borders of Kenya will begin from 6pm to 10pm. The national census will take a week, ending on August 31.
Here is the video courtesy of Citizen TV:
