Enumerators who participated in the eighth national census between 24 and 31st August 2019 in Kiambu County are yet to be paid for their part time services.
The casuals who numbered about 9, 000 took part in the exercise which would see the Government record the number of people in the country.
They are calling on the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics to hasten the payment process so that they are similarly paid just like their counterparts, the ICT personnel and supervisors who have so far been paid.
The enumerators who say their patience is running out are now demanding for their pay saying it was discriminative to only pay a section of the workers, while the people who did the donkey job have not received their dues yet they too have family obligations.
One of the enumerators, Charles Kuria stated “we are now on the verge of protesting on the streets of Kiambu and other sub-counties if we shall not be paid our dues. We feel left out after realizing that some of our colleagues have already been paid”.
Speaking to KNA during an interview at Kangangi market in Kiambu County on Friday on behalf of his colleagues who are now back to their daily hustles Kuria said “We are already tired of waiting for the pay. We have responsibilities and budgets. We did all the work as required so I think it’s only right that they pay us our money and keep their end of the deal. We are sick and tired of being given fake dates of when to be paid”.
“I do not think that it is fair for some people to be paid and others to be left because we all carried out the given job at the same time so we should all receive our pay at the same time. It was something that was placed in the budget and we know the money is there. What we do not understand is why they have not paid us,” said another enumerator, George Ndegwa.
The duo stated that some have seen a list circulating on the social media platform pages of people who were not to be paid and this is really making some of them fear that they would not be paid.
“We have our own WhatsApp group and there was a list that was forwarded to us by our colleagues from other locations with names, locations, county’s names, number of the enumerators and it stated that they should not be paid because of either not returning all that was given to them or for returning a cracked tablet and I can say that list has created a lot of tension since some of us view it as one of the scape goats the government is trying to initiate so that we do not get paid,” Beatrice Maina stated.
The previous censuses were held in 1948, 1962, 1969, 1979, 1989, 1999 and 2009. The government has since 1969 conducted the national census every 10 years.
The Officer in charge of the KNBS in Kiambu County, Lewis Wachira said plans were at an advanced stage to pay them and called for their patience.
By Mary Mueni/Lydia Shiloya
