The Murang’a County Census Committee has been launched ahead of the forthcoming Kenya Population and Housing Census.
The 2019 census is the 8th one to be conducted since first one in 1948 and which after 1969 has always been conducted at a regular interval of 10 years with the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) being in charge of the exercise.
The County Commissioner (CC), Mohammed Barre will chair the 15 – member committee whose membership is drawn from various government ministries as stipulated in legal notice no 205 of Kenya Gazette Supplement no. 141 dated November 13, 2018.
The County Secretary and Chief Officer in charge of Finance and Economic Planning represent the county government in the committee while the dominant religious organisation is represented by the Anglican Church of Kenya (ACK).
During the launch, the Census County Statistics Officer, Peter Kamau said the census committee would be in charge of the general administration, coordination and execution of the census activities at the county level.
It will also undertake publicity and advocacy activities as well as ensure the safety of all census personnel, materials and equipment. The committee will also guide the operations of the sub county census committees.
A county Census Finance Committee composed of the County Commissioner, County Statistics Officer, County Accountant, County Procurement Officer (National Government) and a religious representative was also formed. This committee will ensure that all finances regarding the exercise are used in compliance with regulations.
The 2019 census will be conducted on the night of August 24 and 25 where enumerators will be administering questionnaires seeking to get information on members of households, their housing conditions and amenities.
Barre urged all the county residents to ensure that they were counted and gave accurate information, saying that the census will be the basis for planning in the next ten years.
This year’s census will involve approximately 2,700 IT supervisors, 27,000 content supervisors and 135,000 enumerators countrywide. Others will include security personnel and village elders.
The County Coordinator said advertisement for census jobs will be posted in the print media, KNBS website, county, sub- county, location and sub location offices starting June 11, 2019.
There have been many fake census job advertisements being peddled by fraudsters with the intention of conning jobseekers into paying money for purported census job placement.
Applicants are advised to follow the laid down procedure of application as will be stipulated in the job advertisement.
By Judith Thuo
