This archive report was first published on 22 August 2019.
On August 22, 2019, the Ministry of Information, Communications and Technology (ICT) announced the establishment of a 40-terabyte storage facility to store data collected during the national population and housing census, scheduled to take place over the weekend.
According to ICT Cabinet Secretary Joe Mucheru, the facility will accommodate the data collected through data capture kits deployed across the country, which require at least three terabytes of storage space.
Mucheru assured Kenyans that their data will be safe, stating that they will use locally manufactured seven-inch tablets with software that is locally designed and tested.
He emphasized that the use of locally assembled gadgets and software will enable the management of the data to be within their control, with a data centre under constant monitoring.
"No one, not even the enumerators, will be able to change our data. No data will also be lost because we have adequate and sufficient data storage," Mucheru said.
The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics will conduct the first electronic countrywide census, costing Sh18.5 billion, with Moi University and JKUAT assembling 164,700 data-capture devices at a cost of Sh15,000 each.
