Murang’a leaders lead local residents in being enumerated

Several Murang’a leaders were among the first people to be enumerated as calls for residents to avail themselves for the census intensified.
Governor Mwangi wa Iria, Transport and Infrastructure Cabinet Secretary James Macharia, Water Principal Secretary Joseph Irungu and Murang’a Senator Irungu Kang’ata were among those who were enumerated soon after the exercise kicked off at 6pm on Saturday.
Wa Iria noted that the process is simple and urged residents to cooperate with enumerators to ensure the time taken in collecting information from one family is minimised.
Questions being asked, he noted, were easy to answer and said there was no need for residents to fear giving out correct information needed by the government for purposes of planning for the country.
He lauded residents of Murang’a residing out of the county who took time to travel back home to be able to participate in the exercise saying resources are allocated depending on the size of population.
“I will not fear to ask our people who work outside of the county to come back home and be counted here as they also need resources like hospitals, education among other services locally and the government distributes resources taking into considerations the number of people in each administrative unit,” said Wa Iria after he was enumerated at his residence at Gatanga.
He asked every resident to ensure they are not left out in the census and reiterated that the exercise is crucial for the government to plan how to improve the social economic welfare of the citizens.
“Those alleging that they were counted during the recently concluded Huduma Namba registration are mistaken. Census is a mandatory exercise and huduma namba was a simple registration exercise that had no provision for detailed information,” noted Wa Iria.
Transport CS Macharia termed the enumeration exercise as historic saying it happens once after 10 years and added that this time round, the enumeration process is digital thus taking a shorter time.
Macharia said the country has limited resources which could be properly shared by knowing the right number of citizens.
“This is a national exercise like no other. In terms of what we can be able to do economically will be an outcome of the result of this exercise and hence enable the national government to do better planning for the future of this country,” said Macharia.
The data being collected, Macharia said, touches all aspects of social and economic lives like the level of education, health among others.
He said correct information on census would help the government to plan and align medium term planning for the country and encouraged residents to answer the questions without fear assuring them that confidentiality is guaranteed.
Murang’a County Commissioner Mohammed Barre said security officers have been deployed to ensure there is enough security.
He called upon residents to welcome the enumerators and cooperate with them to ensure the process moves fast.
“We have residents who keep dogs and I appeal to them to ensure their dogs are locked up to give enumerators time to get the needed information,” said Barre.
In Murang’a County, 3, 201 enumerators, 530 content supervisors and 41 special enumerators for those with special needs are engaged in the exercise which will run until August 31.
By Bernard Munyao