Court allows KNBS to recruit public servants for census

The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) has secured a stay order against a court ruling that barred it from recruitment of public servants for the census exercise.

On August 15, 2019, the Employment and Labour Relations Court in Nairobi ordered KNBS to remove names of public servants who had been recruited as supervisors and enumerators.

The order followed a petition that was filed by five residents from Homa Bay County to stop KNBS from carrying out the census exercise in the county.

The five: Michael Kojo, Evans Oloo, John Okambo, Antony Gaya and Daniel Otieno Onyango claimed that there was no public participation ahead of the census exercise.

They also accused KNBS of failing to adhere to the principles of recruitment by hiring people who had not applied for the various positions and who were serving as public servants.

They termed the move as unconstitutional.

The census exercise is expected to kick off from August 24 and 25, 2019 .