President Uhuru Kenyatta and First Lady Margaret Kenyatta were among the first Kenyans to be enumerated in the 2019 National Population and Housing Census exercise that kicked off on Saturday evening.

In a brief address after the enumeration exercise, the President reiterated his earlier call to Kenyans to participate in the national exercise so as to provide the government with appropriate data for purposes of planning national development programs.

“Mine is to say that I have formally gone through the process. We’ve completed that exercise with my family,” the President said.

“Once again I reiterate that this is an exercise that’s geared towards helping us plan for your future. It is an exercise that is geared towards better utilization of your taxes to ensure that they get to the people. You cannot plan if you do not have the right statistics,” he added.

Present during the exercise was Treasury CS Ukur Yatani who said the exercise had taken off smoothly across the country.

“The exercise has taken off in every part, every enumeration area of this country and so far we are registering good progress. We have not had any major hitches anywhere,” the CS Yatani told the President.

Others present were the Principal Secretary for National Planning Torome Saitoti, Treasury Chief Administrative Secretary Nelson Gaichuhie, Kenya National Bureau of Statistics Board Chairman Peter Kiguta and Nairobi Regional Coordinator Wilson Njega.