Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
KNBS was established by an Act of Parliament – the Statistics Act, 2006 No.4. KNBS is a Semi-Autonomous Government Agency under the Ministry of Planning, National Development & Vision 2030.
KNBS is mandated to collect, compile analyze, publish and disseminate official statistics for public use. In addition, KNBS coordinates, monitors and supervises the National Statistical System (NSS).
The NSS is composed of the individual units engaged in the production and use of official statistics in the country. It comprises producers, users, suppliers of statistical information as well as research and training institutions.
The management of the Bureau is vested in the Board of Directors. The Board consists of a Chair (appointed by the President) and seven other Board members. The Director General is the Chief Executive Officer of the Bureau and Secretary to the Board.
The organization structure of the Bureau is composed of six directorates, each headed by a Director.
Statistical Coordination and Methods: responsible for policy research, planning, development of statistical methods and standards, and coordination of the NSS.
Population and Social Statistics Directorate: responsible for collection, compilation, analysis and dissemination of demographic and other social sector statistics, as well as maintenance of the Cartography and NASSEP (National Sampling Survey and Evaluation Programme) laboratory.
Macroeconomic Statistics Directorate: responsible for collection, analysis, generation and dissemination of macroeconomic statistics of National Accounts statistics, External Sector statistics, Monetary and Financial statistics, Public Finance statistics, Tourism, Transport and Communication statistics.
Production Statistics Directorate: responsible for collection, compilation, analysis and dissemination of labour and industrial statistics. This includes employment and earnings, consumer price indices and inflation rates, manufacturing, building and construction, energy and leading economic indicators, business expectation enquiry, agriculture and livestock production, food monitoring and environment statistics.
Corporate Services Directorate: responsible for Finance, Administration and Human Resources Management and Development.
Among the funding sources for KNBS are:
- The Exchequer
- Development partners such as The World Bank, DfID, AfDB, UNFPA, GTZ, UNDP, JICA, USAID, DANIDA, SIDA, UNICEF and Commonwealth Secretariat
KNBS undertakes two broad types of surveys, namely, household-based surveys and establishment based surveys.
These include – but are not limited to – the following:
- Kenya Population and Housing Census
- Kenya Integrated Household Budget Survey
- Kenya Demographic and Health Survey
- Malaria Indicator Survey
- Adult Literacy Survey
- Disability Survey
- Kenya AIDS Indicator Survey
- Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey
- Consumer Price Index
- Producer Price Index
- Labour Force Survey
- Micro and Small Enterprise Survey
- Child labour Survey
- Agriculture and Livestock Survey
- Time Use Survey
- Foreign Investment Survey
- Integrated Survey of Enterprises
- Informal Cross Border Trade Survey
- Survey of villas, cottages and campsites
- Financial Access Survey
- Inbound Outbound Survey
- Survey on Expansion of Coverage of Financial Institutions
- Annual Survey on Industrial Production
- Building and Construction Survey
- Survey of Quarrying and Mining
- Census of Industrial Production