The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) has launched a pilot census data collection programme ahead of the August 2018 national population and housing census.
The pilot programme is set to take place in 12 counties including Nairobi, Kwale, Kilifi, Makueni, Nyeri, Tharaka-Nithi, Mandera, West Pokot, Kericho, Busia, Kisumu and Kisii for the next seven days.
KNBS Director-General Zachary Mwangi said that the programme will go on until August 31 and, already, a select sub-locations, 22 in number, within the 12 pilot counties have been selected for the exercise which aims to test various attributes and inform the planning process for the main census.
PILOT CENSUS
“Pilot census is supposed to be done exactly one year before the actual census itself. It is now exactly one year to the actual census. It is going to take a period of seven days. We have 380 enumerators who are going to do the actual work who have been trained and 71 supervisors and a number of coordinators,” said Mr Mwangi during the launch of the programme on Friday at Imara Daima in Nairobi.
The actual census set for 2019 will cost Sh18.5 billion according to estimates.
Out of this, an estimated Sh3.5 billion will go to buying 164,000 smart phones and relevant census hardware with the remaining budget going to the payment of more than 190,000 staff to be hired for the exercise.
Appearing before the National Assembly’s Constitution Implementation Oversight Committee in February this year, Mr Mwangi said that the 2019 census preliminary figures will be released within one month, basic reports within three months while the comprehensive report will be released by June 2020.
ASSESS INSTRUMENTS
The director-general explained that the pilot programme will assess census instruments (IT equipment, questionnaires, manuals and control forms), test and validate the enumeration procedures, authenticate the list of historical events as an aid to age estimation and evaluate the recruitment and training procedures for enumerators and supervisors.
It will also check the quality of the enumeration area maps, test the efficiency of logistics, flow of data from the field to the headquarters, confirm the publicity levels achieved and evaluate data processing strategies.
“Pilot census helps us tests the questions to administer, the time it takes to administer the questions, the maps and also testing technical, logistics and personnel for the exercise to be sure ahead of the real enumeration,” he said.
10 YEARS
He said that the country normally conducts a census after every 10 years, which has consistently taken place since August 1969, and, in preparation for the exercise, the government agency has so far mapped 28 out of the 47 counties and is scheduled to continue after the pilot census is completed next week.
“We started this process three years ago and we have covered a lot of ground in the preparatory stage. We have mapped 28 counties and now we are going to do the pilot then we will go to the actual enumeration stage where we will do the actual counting of people. Then the post-enumeration stage where we do the analysis and dissemination of the results [will follow],” he said.
KNBS has enlisted the services of 380 enumerators who have been well-trained, 72 supervisors and a number of coordinators for the pilot exercise where paper is not going to be used. Instead, they will use mobile devices as recommended by the United Nations that all countries consider the use of mobile technology for da-ta collection during mapping and census enumeration so as to improve on the quality of the data collected.