The 2019 Census jobs fiasco- knbs issues a statement on the recruitment and training of Enumerators and other Census officials

The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, knbs, has moved to calm down the rising storm over the alleged ‘biased’ recruitment of Census officials. There have been dissenting voices in some parts of the country claiming the recruitment of Enumerators, ICT and Content Supervisors was flawed. In fact, in some parts, residents have vowed to boycott the exercise saying visitors were recruited leaving the ‘deserving’ locals. There have also been demands that civil servants recruited as census officials should relinquish the positions to the unemployed youths.

Here is the Statement by the knbs Director Zachary Mwangi on the recruitment and training of 2019 Census personnel.

“STATEMENT ON THE RECRUITMENT AND TRAINING OF 2019 CENSUS PERSONNEL

The nationwide training of enumerators for the 2019 Kenya Population and Housing Census kicked off yesterday across the country.

There have been incidents in some parts of the country where people are trying to
disrupt the training process. We regret that this is happening at this crucial stage of the census implementation process.

We would like to reassure Kenyans that the recruitment process was as fair, transparent and above board.
The recruitment process was spearheaded by a National Census Steering Committee at the national level. It was assisted by County Census Committees which were headed by county commissioners.

The committees had the mandate of overseeing and coordinating the recruitment and deployment exercise at the county and sub-county levels.

The recruitment process entailed:

1). Advertisement of all the positions in the print media, KNBS website and relevant offices at counties and sub-counties;
2). Receiving applications at the sub-county level for enumerators, location
level for the content supervisors and at county statistics office for ICT supervisors,
3). Summarizing the applications;
4). Shortlisting of candidates;
5). Conducting interviews for shortlisted candidates;
6). Appointment of successful candidates.

The county census committees oversaw the rigorous process of shortlisting, conducting written and oral interviews following set guidelines. These included academic qualifications, gender, disability, and area of residence.

The Bureau is cognizant of the fact that there were many Kenyans who applied for the advertised jobs and had met the minimum requirements for the positions. In total there were over 800,000 applications for the about 165,000 job positions. A total of 2,467 ICT supervisors, 22,268 content supervisors and 138,572 enumerators were recruited. It is regrettable that many had to be left out.

The census committees, who included local leaders, ensured that that those recruited were local residents.

TRAINING EXERCISE

To ensure that this process is seamless, the training phase kicked off on Monday 15th July 2019 starting with Training of Trainers (ToT), followed by ICT and content supervisors.

Currently, enumerators are undergoing training, which will end on 21st August, 2019.

Understanding the recruitment process

ICT Supervisors

1). Applications for the ICT Supervisors job were to be addressed to the County Statistical Officer (CSO) in each county who is the secretary of the County Census Committee (CCC).
2). Applicants dropped their applications at the County Statistics Office, filled a prescribed summary form, registered and picked a reference number.
3). Shortlisting of candidates for the job was done by the County Census Committee at the county level. The committee then communicated to the shortlisted candidates informing them on the venue, date and requirement for the interviews.
4). Interviews for ICT Supervisors were conducted at the County Headquarters.
5). The written interviews were conducted on 5th July, 2019.
6). Marking of the written interviews was done on 6th July, 2019.
Those who excelled in this stage then proceeded for an oral interview on 7th July 2019.
7). The final list of successful candidates was then compiled and signed by the chairperson and secretary and sent to the headquarters in Nairobi for approval.

Content Supervisors and Enumerators

1). Sub-county Census Committees shortlisted the candidates based on the requirements for the position applied.
2). The Sub-County Committees then communicated to the shortlisted candidates informing them of the venue, dates and requirements for the
interviews.
3). The candidates for the content supervisors’ jobs went through the interviews at the Sub-County headquarters.
The written interviews were conducted on 8th July 2019.
Marking of the written interviews was done by gih July 2019 and the oral interviews were conducted on 10th July 2019.
4). The list of successful candidates was compiled and signed by the chairperson and secretary of the Sub-County Census Committee and submitted to the County.”