• From this Saturday, the process of counting all persons within the borders of Kenya will begin.
• The national census will take a week, ending on August 31.
Image: FILE
Interior CS Fred Matiang'i has ordered for all bars countrywide to be closed by 5 pm on August 24/25 to facilitate the census exercise.
Speaking to the Star on phone, Government spokesman Cyrus Oguna confirmed the directive that the bars will be closed to facilitate census.
"All bars should be closed by 5 pm on Saturday and Sunday for the census," he said.
Oguna, however, said that lodgings will remain open.
From this Saturday, the process of counting all persons within the borders of Kenya will begin.
The national census will take a week, ending on August 31.
Outdoor sleepers, persons on transit, individuals in hotels and lodges, and institutions such as hospitals and prisons will all be counted.
All those on duty on Saturday evening such as nurses, doctors, watchmen will be counted with the household even though they will absent.
The national census is carried out every 10 years to primarily determine population, which guides planners on resource allocation.
Kenya's population was reported as 38.6 million during the 2009 census, compared to 28.7 million inhabitants in 1999, 21.4 million in 1989, and 15.3 million in 1979.
In this year's census for the first time, all the data required will be captured electronically through a tablet computer.
About 170,000 enumerators and supervisors have been recruited to work in this year’s Housing and Population Census.