Government Officers Are Coming to Your Door this week: Here’s Why Every Kenyan Should Pay Attention

The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) has kicked off one of the country’s most ambitious data collection campaigns, the 2025/26 Kenya Integrated Household Budget Survey (KIHBS), aimed at reshaping the nation’s development agenda from the grassroots. 

Launched on July 16, 2025, this nationwide door-to-door survey spans all 47 counties and will run for an entire year. Its mission? To gather crucial information that will inform budget planning, policy decisions, and track the real living conditions of Kenyans across diverse regions and demographics. 

KNBS is deploying trained enumerators who will conduct face-to-face interviews in 24,480 scientifically selected households, including 960 households in refugee camps to ensure inclusivity.  

These enumerators are equipped with tablet computers and carry QR-coded identification badges and official introduction letters to confirm their legitimacy. 

The KIHBS will dig deep into the heart of Kenyan life. It will collect wide-ranging indicators covering demographics, education, employment, health, fertility and mortality rates, nutrition, water and sanitation, housing, energy use, and household consumption patterns.  

This data will be used to guide national development, track poverty levels, and help the government make better-informed decisions on resource allocation. 

KNBS has issued a strong appeal to the public: “Please cooperate with the enumerators. Your input matters.”  

The Bureau reassures Kenyans that all responses will be confidential and used purely for statistical and planning purposes. Public cooperation is being hailed as essential for ensuring accurate data, which directly influences government investments and social programs. 

This initiative comes at a time when Kenya’s job market is undergoing a significant transformation. In its latest employment report released on May 6, KNBS revealed that 782,300 new jobs were created in 2024, with a staggering 90% of them in the informal sector, including self-employment, casual labor, and small enterprises.  

This signals a growing reliance on grassroots entrepreneurship and informal workspaces, rather than traditional wage-paying formal sector jobs. 

Despite the growth, the figures represent a 7.8% decline compared to 2023, suggesting economic challenges persist. The formal sector created just 78,600 jobs, raising its wage employment base by 2.4%, now totaling around 3.2 million workers. Slight gains were also recorded in self-employment and unpaid family roles within the formal economy. 

The ongoing KIHBS survey will not only help the government measure this shifting employment landscape but also map out strategies to improve livelihoods, especially in underserved and informal communities. 

As KNBS embarks on this massive data mission, Kenyans are being given a direct role in shaping their country’s future. Every answered question is a building block for better policies, smarter spending, and inclusive development.