The government is has begun preparations for
the next population and housing census in August next year.
A cabinet memo and a proposal on the undertaking were approved in May 2017, outgoing Devolution CS Mwangi Kiunjuri noted on Monday.
Kiunjuri said enumeration - the process of dividing the country into smaller units to help produce area maps - has been fully implemented in 11 counties.
These are Trans Nzoia, Kisumu, Siaya, Vihiga, Nyeri, Murang’a, Kirinyaga, Nyandarua, Embu, Makueni and Kitui .
The exercise has also taken place in parts of West Pokot and Mandera.
The minister reported that by the end of February 2018, all data collection tools will have been developed.
Thereafter, a national steering committee will meet to deliberate on and approve a number of documents to guide implementation.
“Between now and the census date, we need to lobby political leaders to seek their support for the census process,” he added when he handed over to Eugene Wamalwa on Monday. Wamalwa previously served in the Water ministry.
The last census, in 2009, found a population of 38,610,097 people.
Out of these, men and women nearly struck a balance, numbering 19,192,458 and 19,417,639 respectively.
Kakamega governor Wycliffe Oparanya, who was planning minister at that time, noted a repeat count was ordered in eight districts - now sub-counties - after inconsistencies were noted in data for areas in northern Kenya.
These areas were Lagdera, Wajir East, Mandera Central, Mandera East, Mandera West, Turkana Central, Turkana North, and Turkana South.
According to the census, the top ethnic communities by number were Kikuyu (6.62 million), Luhya (5.33 million), Kalenjin (4.96 million) and Luo (4.04 million).
The Akamba number 3.89 million, Kenyan Somalis 2.38 million, Kisiis 2.21 million, the Mijikenda 1.96 million, Ameru 1.65 million, Turkana 0.99 million, Maasai 0.84 million, Teso 0.33 million and Embu 0.32 million.
The results indicated protestant churches enjoyed the biggest following in the country - 18.3 million followers.
Then came the Catholic Church with 9,010,684 followers and 'other Christian churches' with 4,559,584 followers.
The Muslim population in the country stood at 4,304,798 while that of Hindus was 53,393.
The 1999 census showed the country had 28.7 million people, 10 million people more in a decade.