Ronga warns census officers

NATIONAL Population and Housing Census officers must be prepared to face challenges from people who oppose the exercise, census director Kit Ronga said.
Mr Ronga warned officers that they were bound to come across people who would ask a lot of questions like why they have not seen much development despite being counted in the national census.
“The census is not an election, census has nothing to do with elections, census is only interested in counting people and what they are doing, nothing else,” he told Central province district administrators and local level government managers in a training workshop this week.
“The census is very important, the Government must stock take its people, where they are and what they are doing so that it can make informed planning,” he explained.
He also stressed on the importance of the media’s task in disseminating information to the public about the census.
“We are stepping up publicity and it must be driven at all levels.
“You must disseminate the right information,” he said.
The Government has, for the first time, taken ownership of the national event and has allocated K107million for the exercise.
The previous censuses were funded by donor agencies.
The National Statistical Office has already set up 23 provincial offices with the appointment of provincial census coordinators.
The census will begin with the listing of households in April.
The listing will determine the number of field officers to recruit and how many census forms to print.