A few days ago was 2019, and 2019 was the year that drew the curtain on the decade. Today, we take time to applaud Kenya’s outstanding performance last year, a performance that definitely deserves a standing ovation.
In December 2015, the World Health Organization issued a call for expression of interests from African ministries of health to collaborate in the malaria vaccine implementation program. Of the 10 countries that responded this call, only three were selected, and Kenya made the pilot team! This is the world’s first vaccine against malaria, and Kenya was selected as one of the countries to be on the forefront of this breakthrough.
On 13th September, the program was rolled out across the country, after being launched in Malawi on 23rd April and in Ghana on 30th April. Many parents turned up at Ndhiwa town in Homa Bay County, where the launch was taking place, with their ailing infants cradled in their arms, ready for a more permanent solution to malaria. For as long as many can remember Malaria has been stalking children and adults alike, with approximately 10,700 Kenyans being lost to the disease each year according to the Center for Disease Control. It still is the leading killer of children younger than 5 years in Kenya. Other than Homa Bay, the other seven counties selected as introduction areas included Kisumu, Migori, Siaya, Busia, Bungoma, Vihiga, and Kakamega. With every vaccine administered in this pilot program, the possibility of a malaria-free nation becomes more achievable. Can you imagine what that would do for our health system and national productivity?
In addition to deployment of the malaria vaccine, Kenya conducted her decennial census last year. This was the eighth census in our nation’s history, with two of the previous seven having been conducted pre-independence in 1948 and 1962. After the third census which took place in 1969, the ten year pattern was established and has been maintained for fifty years.
Between 24th and 31st August 2019, the enumeration process was conducted countrywide. Afterward, a mop-up exercise was held on 1st and 2nd September to cover those not enumerated during the intended days. Do you remember the questions asked during the exercise? One that particularly tickled the ribs of many who dwell in areas removed from water bodies was the inquiry about ownership of a canoe. However, this question was derived from one of the eight areas which were the focus of the exercise. These included household assets, population characteristics, disability, housing conditions and amenities education, labour force, ICT, and agriculture.
The 2019 census differed greatly from that of previous years because of the use of new technology to capture citizen data. Anyone who participated in the exercise remembers that enumerators turned up on people’s door steps with tablets. On these tablets, they would capture all the data provided and transmit it back to a central server. In previous years, census personnel had the tedious tasks of recording data manually onto paper questionnaires and the process would take much longer both for data capture and results release..
Utilization of digital questionnaires hastened the process of data decoding, and three short months later, Kenya’s population data was released. This was a huge step forward from waiting for as much as a year for census results. As per the data captured, Kenya’s population stands at 47.6 million, 9 million more than in 2009.
2019 was a remarkable way to wind up the decade. Our adaptability and pioneering spirit in 2019 will surely carry us through to the next decade – a new chapter of our country’s story.
