Some 900 households in Siaya County will participate in this year’s Kenya Demographic and Health Survey, area County Commissioner, Mohammed Barre has said.
Speaking during the launch of the exercise in his office, Barre said that the households have been mapped into 36 enumeration areas, each of which will consist of 25 households.
The County Commissioner, who was flanked by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics cluster mobiliser, Charles Dieto, and Siaya County Deputy Director of Health, Mathews Odiango, called on the local residents in the targeted clusters to give maximum support to the staff who will visit their homes.
Barre said that the survey, that is set to take six months, is key for planning and development of the country hence the need for cooperation of all stakeholders.
“The exercise is key for planning and development and its goal is to provide up to date estimates of demographic and health indicators to guide the planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of population and health related programmes,” said Barre.
Siaya County Deputy Director of Health, Mathews Odiango, said data from the survey will help both the county and national governments to put in place better strategies to improve health services to the residents.
Odiango said that the survey will cover a wide range of health related fields such as HIV/AIDS, non-communicable diseases, maternal and infant mortality rates among others.
KNBS cluster mobiliser Dieto said, data collectors have already been trained and will visit the targeted villages from Thursday this week. He urged national government administrators to help KNBS succeed in the exercise.
By Philip Onyango
