Training for content supervisors in the forth-coming population and housing census has kicked off in Murang’a County.
The week-long training that was opened by the County Commissioner, Mohammed Barre, involves 522 content supervisors who will be deployed across the county to oversee the exercise.
Addressing the enumerators at Murang’a Teachers Training College Monday, the County Commissioner urged the participants to strictly adhere to all the guidelines for the census and ensure that the exercise of counting people is done in a way that will yield accurate and credible and reliable data.
“Pay attention to all the instructions given and ensure that you apply to the book what is required of you,” the CC urged the participants.
He said that preparations of the national exercise that takes place after every ten years have been taking place for a long time and the census is the culmination of a process that started way back in 2015 when cartographic mapping of house enumeration areas was done.
He added that planning for the census has been a collaborative effort by many government departments coordinated by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS).
The Commissioner assured the personnel that adequate security would be provided to ensure that the exercise is conducted safely and smoothly.
At the same time, he urged the census officers to take great care of all the census materials issued to them and warned that no officer will be paid until they returned all the materials and equipment in good condition.
He told the officers that they should be proud that they have been given an opportunity to serve the country in such an important exercise and therefore they should give their best.
The census coordinator in charge of the county, Adrian Njenga, called upon the officers to observe discipline during the training and also during the census exercise.
Mr. Njenga said that the content supervisors will be responsible for the results delivered by the census enumerators who will be working under them and as such they should pay attention to the training since they will also be required to train the enumerators.
The census will be conducted on the night of August 24/25, 2019. The government uses the data collected during the exercise for planning of development programmes. The data is also used by National and International agencies to inform critical decisions on diverse issues.
By Judith Thuo
