Narok County Commissioner Mr. Samuel Kimiti has assured census official deployed to carry out this year`s housing and population census of adequate security during the exercise.
Speaking when he closed a seven day training programme for content supervisors in Narok Sunday, Kimiti said more security personnel have been deployed to various parts of the county to ensure the exercise goes on smoothly.
He at the same time reiterated his earlier appeal to the census officials to treat any information they will receive from the public during the exercise with utmost confidentiality saying it was meant to aid government planning and not for publication.
“I urge you to stick to the oath of secrecy that you have sworn by keeping every information you will receive from the public as confidential,” he said. The content supervisors will now train enumerators for the exercise.
Kimiti appealed to the public to avail themselves and open their homes to census officials during the population and housing census to be carried out on the night of 24/25 August this year, adding that the information they give will be handled in confidence.
He also called on the recruited census officials in the county to carry out the exercise with utmost transparency and commitment in order to obtain reliable and accurate data that will help the government in its planning.
“This exercise is important to the country in that it will enable the government to know its population and its dynamics and distribution so that it can plan effectively,” he said.
KNBS Director General Zachary Mwangi Chege has said this time round the census data will be captured electronically through a paperless process. It will incorporate use of data collection tablets that have been assembled at the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology and Moi University.
He said the exercise has to adhere to internationally recognized guidelines which advocate for the values of professionalism, transparency, accountability and integrity required of statistical systems in maintaining credibility and public confidence.
According to the latest data from United Nations, the Kenya population had hit 52 million mark by June this year and this census will confirm or correct this figure.
By Mabel Keya-Shikuku
