At least 165,000 Kenyans will be hired to conduct the housing and population census.
Recruitment will be done in June. The census will take place in August.
The government said it will hire 135,900 field enumerators, 27,000 supervisors and 2,700 ICT supervisors.
Treasury CS Henry Rotich yesterday warned against fraudsters, saying the call for applications will be transparent.
“The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics and my ministry have official websites. Any official communication should only emanate from the two institutions,” he told journalists in Nairobi.
The KNBS said it will spend about Sh3.5 billion of the Sh18.5 billion budget to buy 170,000 tablets.
In previous censuses, data was entered manually.
Rotich said digital devices will improve data and enable faster release of census information.
“The bureau has been using mobile technology in undertaking surveys and therefore has adequate capacity,” he said.
The devices will be installed with a tracking software, area maps and questionnaires. Remote, off-grid areas will be supplied with solar chargers.
Rotich said this year’s census will provide data on a wide range of indicators including fertility, mortality, disability, education and labour.
Kenya has conducted seven censuses before — two were pre-Independence. The last census in 2009 recorded 38 million people. However, the exercise was controversial after results in eight districts were cancelled over inflated population figures.
They were Lagdera, Mandera East, Mandera Central, Mandera West, Wajir East, Turkana North, Turkana South and Turkana Central districts.
Leaders from the region sued the government at the High Court and won. But the Court of Appeal in 2016 allowed the government to revise the total figure downwards from 2.35 million people to 1.3 million.
This year’s drive will be closely watched because it is the first after devolution. Planning PS Julius Muia said the government will use the 2019 census data for planning.
“Results of the census will form a key input into the budget allocation to the devolved units,” he said.