Office concerned about following protocols while carrying out census

THE primary concern of the National Statistical Office (NSO) is to adhere to and promote the Covid-19 protocols when carrying out the census, acting national statistician John Igitoi says.
Igitoi said NSO was a State emergency and should always follow protocols in all its activities and training which were to be carried out while census was being conducted.
“Not just the census, but a quality data that would provide accurate mirror-image of the population, demographic and other socio-economic characteristics of our country,” he said.
Igitoi said adhering to these measures meant increasing the cost of conducting the census.
He said following the protocols would be an expensive exercise and the Government had to add a little bit more to cover the cost of a quality census.
“Our budget is for 30 people in a room, so this measure means we need more rooms and more trainers,” he said.
“This will increase the cost by two to three times.”
“Our estimate for this (30 people per room) is K34 million while we have a funding gap of K30 million.”
Structural listings, mapping and geographical coordinators of location exercises in the urban areas throughout the country are almost done, he added.