• Mobile technology will be used for both cartographic mappings as well as enumeration.
• For the first time, the government will carry out a paperless census.
In three weeks time, the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics will carry out the national census across the country which will last for seven days.
KNBS has introduced a new criterion that will be collected from you during the process.
For the first time in history, intersex question will be included in the upcoming census.
Intersex has been included as an option on the sex categories.
This means apart from usual male or female options in the category, one will also have an option of intersex, which is a natural condition.
For the first time, the government will carry out a paperless census. Technology will be used to collect data.
Mobile technology will be used for both cartographic mappings as well as enumeration.
KNBS has banked on the digitalised census to end the politics that marred 2009 census process which was highly disputed.
KNBS director general told the Star in an exclusive interview that such disputes will not be witnessed this time due to data safety mechanism that has been put in place.
" We are confident because we have tested this device
. We have experienced personnel. Our tea has learned how to do the digital census. The technology has been tested as late as April," Mwangi said.
The other thing introduced in this year's census is crop farming and fishing.
Unlike the previous census where livestock questions appeared, a household will be required to declare if it owns exotic or indigenous cattle, sheep, goats, camel, donkeys, pigs, indigenous or exotic chicken, bees, fish ponds ad fish cages.
It will also check whether you cultivate sorghum, maize, rice, potatoes, beans, sugarcane, cassava, sweet potatoes, wheat, green grams, bananas, cabbages, tomatoes, onions, groundnuts, millet, watermelons, kales and cotton.
Crops data will check if a household farms tea, coffee, avocados, citrus, mangoes, coconuts, macadamia, cashew nuts and miraa.
This will provide information for future agricultural surveys.
The government will not only inquire of education level but will seek to know if you are employed in a field that you trained on.
The process will be done at night within the boundaries of the country.
Kenyans will be asked questions about their age, sex, ethnicity, nationality, religion, marital status and county of birth.
Kenyans in the diaspora will not be featured in the upcoming census due to the time limit but the question on emigrant will appear in the questionnaire.
The household will, however, be asked if it has relatives outside the country.
Census results will be released on December 2019.
This will be the eighth population count in Kenya since 1948.