Govt: Census enumerators expected to cover 13 million households

The government on Monday stated that each of the enumerators mandated with carrying out the census is expected to have covered 100 households by the end of the exercise.

This is according to Interior Principal Secretary Karanja Kibicho who made the announcement at a press conference on Monday where he also stated that the government will put every effort to ensure the exercise is completed by the set date of August 31, 2019.

A quick skim through the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) website revealed that census personnel include 2,467 ICT supervisors, 22,268 content supervisors and 138,572 enumerators.

Hence if each of the 138,572 enumerators covers 100 households then it would reveal that the government is targeting to account for at least 13,857,000 households.

“We have a foolproof system to deter false information and altering of numbers. We are expecting that by end of the 7 days each enumerator should have covered 100 households,” said the PS.

He also added that at least 35 cases of a section of Kenyan citizens obstructing the enumeration exercise have already been reported, with a few of them already in court.

“It’s against the law for anyone to stop enumerators to do their work,” said PS Kibicho, adding that action will be taken against area administrators found to be involved in boycotting of the exercise.

He further thanked bar and restaurant owners for heeding to the call to shut down their premises by 5PM for the first two days of the exercise; Saturday and Sunday.

The PS also gave the business owners the green light to resume operations saying the establishments can be open Monday from 5PM.

“For Kenyans who have not been counted you still have time that is up to August 31…We expect that by then each household will have been visited.”

“We have agreed as inter-ministerial committee to extend working hours from 6am to 10pm in urban areas such as Nairobi, Mombasa, Nakuru, Eldoret, Kisumu, Kakamega, Kisii, Machakos, Thika,” he stated.