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{
    "id": 930423,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/930423/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 140,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Bondo, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Gideon Ochanda",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1264,
        "legal_name": "Gideon Ochanda Ogolla",
        "slug": "gideon-ochanda-ogolla"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker. I want to alert us that the sources of conflicts and wars are changing. One area that will have more conflict - and already it has - is the area of data, data sources and how that data informs us. We have learnt from the last census to date the amount of havoc or good that has happened because of the data we have from 2009. Resources have been allocated based on that data for the last 10 years. If at all there were things that were not right, then they have not been right for the last 10 years. If at all what we are going to do again in the next census is not right, then it will not be right for the next 10 years. It means, at the end of the day, that some of us are going to get those problems for 20 years running. So, the issue of data is so critical. I support this Statistics (Amendment) Bill. As we discuss these issues, it is important that the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics looks into things like trust and confidence. These have been lacking for a period of time yet, it is the agency that we rely on. The bureau must look at how Kenyans can trust what it does. How will they handle the census so as to be seen to be viable? What amount of education are they sending out to the public that, at the end of the day, we can have confidence in what they are doing? These are critical things that we must ask as a nation. As we move towards the census exercise in August this year, these issues will be important and the nation must look at them. There are many things that happen in between the census. These are the things that the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics needs to be looking into from time to time, instead of waiting for the census time. For example, there are agencies that are doing a lot on issues of births and deaths. What are these records helping us with in the meantime before census is done? There definitely is data in terms of knowing... Right now, people are giving all manner of estimates. We are talking about our population being over 40 million. People come up with all manner of estimates. They say that the population of people in Kibra slums is four million. People come with all manner of estimates that the number of dairy cows we have in Siaya is 700. You look at the sources of all these data and you get amused at what is really going on. So, the next areas of conflicts are going to be issues of data. There are community health workers who now work in the county governments. These people are collecting massive amounts of data daily from households. In fact, even if we did not do the head count and somebody isolated the information that is all over the counties in terms of what the community health workers are doing wherever they are, it is massive. How do we look at what they are doing to help us in the meantime, in between the censuses? There is the Huduma Namba exercise we went through. The other day I was asking the enumerators and they were telling me I could get all manner of data from the information they were collecting from people: the number of cats or cows in a home. This is exactly what the census is going to be doing. I am looking at this in the sense that we may end up saving a lot if the intermediary activities help to inform the census. If that happened, the amount of money we are going to spend this year, for example, in the census could be down. Thank you, Hon. Speaker. I support the amendments."
}