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40-terabyte storage facility set up to accommodate census data – Mucheru

ICT Cabinet Secretary Joe Mucheru (pictured) on Thursday announced at least 3 terabytes are required to store information collected through data capture kits deployed across the country/FILE

NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 22 – The Ministry of Information, Communications and Technology has set up a 40-terabyte storage facility to accommodate data collected in the national census slated for this weekend.

The government has announced that there will be 7 days extension to ensure all Kenyans are enumerated.

ICT Cabinet Secretary Joe Mucheru on Thursday announced at least 3 terabytes are required to store information collected through data capture kits deployed across the country.

“I would like to assure Kenyans that your data and information is secure. If we have ensured that we have several security measures that we have put in place to ensure that all the information we have collected is not all stored in a secure place,” the CS said Thursday at a joint media briefing with his cabinet colleagues Fred Matiangi (Interior) and Ukur Yatani (National Treasury).

The software being used, the CS said, is locally assembled and designed to ensure there is no infiltration of the information streaming into the data centres.

To ensure the transmission of data will only be received from the designated gadgets, the Government has created a special network to ensure no other device is used.

“We are very sure that also the quality of the data coming is only coming from our own sources,” the ICT CS asserted.

“Not even the enumerators can change the software that is already there, and therefore we are certain that the data we will get will be correct.”

To enquire on the exercise, one can reach authorities through the hotline number 0 800 221 020.

On his part, Matiangi allayed fears of security threats during the exercise, saying all measures have been put in place to seal any loophole.

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Already, he said, all the security personnel have since been deployed to various parts of the country.

Earlier this week, security officers and administrators were recalled from leave for the entire census period.

“We are all on duty until this exercise is concluded,” he said.

He asked Kenyans willing to monitor the exercise to seek accreditation from their respective County Commissioners.

Matiangi reiterated that all social places among them places of worship and bars will be closed through the exercise starting 5pm Saturday.

“You can drink your beer until 5 pm, then you honorably go home to be enumerated,” he said while issuing an apology “for any inconvenience caused.”

“It is only done once in ten years. Let us not cause confusion and go ahead with the exercise.”

Matiangi further warned politicians against attempts to move people from one area to the other, in a bid to boost numbers of their preferred places.

“At the appropriate time, we will ensure that you meet with the law so that you are helped to live as a decent leader.”

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The preliminary outcome will be announced after three months, CS Yatani said.

The data collected will help the Government to plan for the next 10 years, when a similar exercise will be carried out.

For the first time, the Government will enumerate intersex persons, after the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics introduced the third marker, to accommodate them.

There is an estimated 700,000 intersex persons across the country, whose information don’t exist in the Government records.

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