With barely a day left to the night of August 24, fear and controversies have been the centre stage of the 2019 population census exercise.
And several leaders, including opposition leaders, have taken the matter to the public helm, urging citizens to remain calm and participate in the exercise peacefully.
Ford Kenya leader Moses Wetangula and his ANC counterpart Musalia Mudavadi on Wednesday called on Kenyans to fully participate in the forthcoming national census.
In a joint press statement, the duo called on government to guarantee security to the enumerators for the smooth running of the exercise.
They also urged that the exercise will play a critical role towards planning and allocation of resources to respective regions.
Security
They further challenged the line ministry to address pertinent issues raised by the courts and Kenyans regarding preparation and recruitment.
Kenyans have been questioning the exercise, which is scheduled to be conducted during night hours, with many fearing for their security.
However, according to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), the exercise has been planned guaranteeing the security of every Kenyan.
KNBS maintains that enumerators will have official identity cards and reflector jackets for ease of identification. Also, have been recruited from where they live.
They will also be accompanied by village elders, leaders of residence associations or assistant chiefs who are well known by the heads of households.
The exercise will run through the night of August 24 to August 31, with 138,572 enumerators, 22,268 content supervisors and 2,467 ICT supervisors who will oversee it.
The preliminary results of the census are expected in three month time after the exercise.
This is the eighth census being conducted in the country after the 2009 census.
Edited by Wycliffe Musalia
