Kenya to Hold its First-Ever Paperless Population Census in August for Sh18 Billion

The government is set to carry out Kenya's first-ever paperless population census in August.

Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) Director- General Zachary Mwangi said the exercise will be done electronically from August 24th to 25th.

Mwangi said the agency has already designed, developed and tested a computer program that will be used during the counting drive.

“We’re very confident about our data-capture program,” said Mwangi.

Mwangi further pointed out that data entry will be done through mobile electronic devices assembled at Moi University and Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT).

“This was informed by the fact that these two universities did participate in the digital literacy program for the assembly of the tablets for primary schools. This has led to the creation of many jobs for the youth in the assembly and programming of these devices,” he noted.

The two institutions will assemble 164,700 data-capture devices at the cost of Sh15,000 each.

Mwangi spoke at Kenyatta International Convention Center (KICC) during a press briefing on the progress of preparation for the 2019 Kenya Population and Housing Census. The exercise will cost Sh18.5 billion.

“The 2019 census will be the first to make use of technology. It will be a paperless process, and will use mobile technology for Cartographic Mapping as well as Enumeration,” said Mwangi.

A total of 174,700 personnel including 12,700 ICT supervisors, 27,000 content supervisors, and 135,000 enumerators will be hired for the exercise.