• KNBS to deploy 164,700 mobile devices which will reject statistically incorrect entries
• Exercise will cost Sh18.5 billion, with the bulk of the money paying workers
Image: ENOS TECHE
Kenyans will know the country's population in December, 90 days after the census is completed.
Kenya National Bureau of Statistics said this will be the fastest ever tabulation of results in the history of the exercise.
The census will be conducted for seven days from the night of August 24-25 to August 31.
"We will be able to release preliminary results after 90 days and final results within six months," KNBS director general Zachary Mwangi said at a press conference in Nairobi on Monday.
Results of the 2009 census were released after 12 months, following controversy over manipulation of entries in the Northeastern districts.
Mutua Kakinyi, the senior manager in charge of data processing, said the coming exercise will be paperless.
Data entry will be done through 164,700 mobile electronic devices assembled by Moi University and Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology at Sh15,000 each.
"The devices will reject statistically incoherent entries, which eliminates the mistakes made in northeastern in 2009," he said.
Mwangi said they are currently recruiting 164,700 Kenyans to conduct the exercise.
They comprise 2,700 ICT supervisors, 27,000 content supervisors and 135,000 enumerators.
He said the training of the team begins on July 15 and will be completed by August 21.
ICT supervisors will be paid Sh3,000 per day, content supervisors Sh2,500 and enumerators Sh1,500 for each day worked.
"The exercise will cost Sh18.5 billion, with the bulk of the money paying the workers," Mwangi said.
The cost covers preparatory activities that began three years ago and will also cover the publication and dissemination of results.
The 2009 census cost about Sh8 billion and was 90 per cent government-funded.
This year, the exercise will cover demographics, disability, education, labour force, ICT access, agriculture, housing conditions, and amenities as well as household assets.
“In the previous census we did not collect information on agriculture but this year we have a whole module on agriculture, this will help in economic planning because agriculture is the main economic activity in Kenya,” Mwangi said.
This will be the eighth population count in Kenya since 1948.
KNBS director of population and social statistics Macdonald Obudho said only people within Kenya on the night of August 24-25 will be counted, including visitors.
He said they have categorised the population into special and conventional groups.
Special people include those in hotels and hostels and the homeless.
"Those travelling will be counted at police roadblocks mounted on roads that night," he said.
Kenya's population in 2009 was 38,610,097 people, out of which 19,192,458 were male and 19,417,639 females.
The 2019 census is expected to place the population at about 50 million, according to various estimates.
Edited by R.Wamochie