Trans Nzoia is projecting to count at least 1.2 million people in the August census.
The Trans Nzoia County Commissioner (CC), Samson Ojwang said that the same projection was done for the Huduma Namba that ended two weeks ago.
Speaking during the County Census Inaugural Committee meeting on Thursday, the CC who is chair for the
committee asked residents to be wary of fraudsters who pose as census officials to fleece residents of monies in the name of employing them as census officials.
“Adverts have been doing rounds on social media especially whatsapp groups; I am asking residents to ignore the adverts because they are fake… Kenya National Bureau of Statistics is going to place adverts for employing census officials on June 11 2019,” he said.
He asked residents to be ready to be counted adding that census is key to planning for the people of Kenya. “We need to get demographics on households, births, economic status among other things for us to plan for our people,” he said.
Speaking at the same function, a senior official of KNBS, Benjamin Avusevwa asked residents to stop migrations on the reference days of 24 and 25th of August.
“Sometimes we have had cases where people move to their home county to be counted that when they really stay for instance in Nairobi. People should remain at their economic areas of economic interest because that is where they live most of the times and planning for them is important,” he said.
The population for Trans Nzoia has steadily risen from 124,369 people in 1969 to 818, 757 people in the year 2009.
Avusevwa said that a pilot project to test the tools had already been done and verification of maps also done and KNBS is ready for the census which is done every after 10 years.
Ojwang took the opportunity to ask residents to volunteer to security agents information on suspected criminals reminding residents that radicalization is real and must be fought through concerted efforts.
By Pauline Ikanda
