The ongoing national population census exercise hours have been extended to day time in major towns after Kenyans expressed concern of on the pace of the activity.
Initially, the exercise was supposed to take place between 6 pm and 6 am all over the country but the Interior Principal Secretary has since changed the timings for major towns.
In major towns like Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, and Nakuru, the exercise will now take place from 6 am to 10 pm instead of 6 pm to 6 am.
Eldoret, Kisii, Nyeri, Kiambu, Machakos, Kakamega and Thika are some of the other big towns where census hours have been extended.
This move, he said, was to ensure that every Kenyan and anyone within the Kenyan borders’ details is captured.
“We acknowledge that day one might have been slow but by the second day, the pace has been improving. We know that many Kenyans are yet to be visited. We are therefore extending census working hours from 6 am to 10 pm, especially in major towns,” said Dr. Kibicho.
By Monday, 26 August, Kenyans had gone to their social media sites to find out if the exercise had kicked off as they had not seen census officials in their residences.
The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics director of Population and Social Statistics Mr. Macdonald Obudho advised Kenyans to be patient as the exercise will be on for seven days.
“Census dates were scheduled for seven days. We are only getting started. We have enough personnel and we will ensure that every household is visited, so we kindly ask Kenyans to be patient,” said Mr. Obudho during an interview.
Apart from the pace, the decision to extend the census exercise to day time was reached to protect enumerators and other KNBS staff as it emerged that the exercise was marred in Maseno after an official was assaulted in the course of the exercise.
Kenya’s sixth national census kicked off on Saturday, August 24 and is expected to end on 31 August.