The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, KNBS, has said recruitment of personnel to conduct the 2019 National Census exercise will commence in June, 2019. Addressing a media briefing this morning, KNBS Director General (Mr Zachary Mwangi) warned the public against falling prey to social media posts on enumerator jobs, saying the reports are false.
There have been numerous posts doing rounds on Social Media advertising for enumerators’ jobs. An example of such scamming posts is displayed below:
“Let me caution the public against falling prey to fraudsters who have formed a syndicate to defraud Kenyans with promises of securing jobs in the forth coming Census,” said Henry Rotich, the Treasury Cabinet Secretary.
The media briefing was attended by the National Treasury & Planning Cabinet Secretary, Mr.Henry Rotich, and Permanent Secretary planning, Dr Julius Muia, and Senior officers from KNBS.
KNBS will acquire about 165,000 mobile devices to undertake the digital census slated for August, 2019. the two day exercise will start on August 24, this year. The devices will be acquired from the local higher learning institutions through the digital literacy programme. The Government would have spent about Kshs. 18.5 billion by the time the exercise comes to a close. Census is done after every 5 years.
KNBS will recruit about 135,000 enumerators, 27,000 content supervisors and 2,700 ICT (Information Communication Technology) Supervisors.
The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, KNBS, has kicked off the training of recruited personnel who will oversee the August Population and Housing Census. According to KNBS Chair Peter Kiguta, Training of Trainers, ToTs, started on July 15.
“To ensure that this process is seamless, the training phase of the enumeration personnel kicked off on Monday 15th July 2019, with the Training of Trainers (ToT) in Machakos County. ICT supervisors, content supervisors and enumerators will also undergo training up until 20th August 2019, a few days shy of the 2019 Kenya Population and Housing Census enumeration,” said Kiguta.
Kiguta said KNBS recruited 2,700 ICT Supervisors, 27,000 Content Supervisors and 135,000 Enumerators for the upcoming Census exercise.
ICT Supervisors will train Content Supervisors who will then train Enumerators for this year’s paperless census activity. In a break from the past, this year and for the first time, the exercise will be digital and tablets will be used to collect Census data.
Those recruited were taken through rigorous interviews; that included both written and oral interviews. Most of those absorbed will work in their backyards since they understand the areas better.
“A case in point was at the oral interview, the candidates were required to present their original certificates, testimonials and National Identity cards for verification. Presentation of photocopy IDs and certificates saw many lose to other candidates who strictly adhered to the rules,” he added.
The local chiefs and their assistants played a key role in the recruitment process so as to ensure only locals were recruited. In fact it is them who received the applications and gave recommendations on suitability of candidates.
“The County Census Committees were expected to consult with local leaders, chiefs, village elders and assistant chiefs to certify that those recruited were from the specific areas they will be deployed to. Furthermore, for transparency and accountability, personnel details of the successful persons were vetted for approval at the county level and at the headquarters in Nairobi,” Kiguta further explained.
According to the agency, on the Reference Night (24th August, 2019) enumerators will visit houses that have already been mapped out into Enumeration Areas. They have been recruited from the counties and wards where they come from through county census committees. Enumerators will therefore be familiar to residents. They are in the process of being trained to ensure that they will be well prepared and capable to carry out this important national exercise.
At each household, enumerators will seek information from the head of the households using a questionnaire which is divided into 8 sections: population characteristics, disability, education, labour force, ICTs, agriculture, housing and amenities, household assets.
Data enumerators will be recruited between June 11th and June 24th, 2019.
Advertisements to invite eligible Kenyans to apply for the census jobs are expected to be published in all media outlets within the next two weeks. Keep an eye here for the adverts.
The interviews and shortlisting will be done between 28th June and 7th July .
The Kenya National Bureau Of Statistics, KNBS, has released a programme of activities for its 2019 Census exercise.
According to the official schedule, data enumerators will be recruited between June 11th and June 24th, 2019 , ahead of the August census exercise.
KNBS will employ upto 135,000 enumerators, 27,000 content supervisors and 2,700 Information and Technology supervisors on short term basis. The short listing and interviewing is expected to run from 28th June to 18th July, 2019.
Speaking at the inaugural meeting of the Nyeri County Kenya Population and Housing Census committee, a Human Resource Officer with the KNBS, Pauline Waweru, said apart from the core census personnel, the government will also hire albeit on temporary basis terms tens of hundreds of village elders and coordinators to assist in the exercise.
The interviews and shortlisting will be done between 28th June and 7th July .
The successful applicants will be trained between 25th July to 20th August.
The actual data collection will take place between 24th August to 31st August this year across the country. This brings to an end of a flurry of fake and misleading adverts on the KNBS jobs.
See attached screen shot for your reference on KNBS programme of activities;
