Remarks by the Ag, Director General, Kenya National Bureau Of Statistics, Mr. Zachary Mwangi, During The African Statistics Day Celebrations And The Attainment Of KNBS ISO9001:2008 Certification Held At KICC on 18t November, 2013
The Chief Guest, Ms. Anne Waiguru, the Cabinet Secretary for Devolution and Planning,
Cabinet Secretaries present,
Eng. Peter Mangiti, Principal Secretary for Planning
Other Principal Secretaries present
Mr. Edwin Osundwa, Chairman KNBS Board of Directors
Representatives from Development Partners
CEOs and Heads of Departments present
KNBS staff,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen;
Good morning and welcome to our celebrations.
Today is yet another day that we are gathered to raise awareness on the production and use of statistics, which is one of our core mandates. Our Vision in the Bureau – to be “A centre of excellence in Statistics production and management” – truly captures the theme for the 13th African Statistics Day celebration. The theme focuses on “Quality Data to support African Progress.” This draws attention to all data producers, supplies and users to the importance of quality statistics for evidence based decision making in all aspects of our socio economic development processes. Our celebrations today combines both the African Statistics Day and the attainment of the ISO 9001:2008 Quality Management System certification.
Statistics is a powerful and irreplaceable tool for decision making which informs the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of various development programmes by government and stakeholders. The need for and use of quality data, therefore, is critical in planning and improving delivery of services.
Ladies and Gentlemen
The Bureau believes that data should be relevant to the needs of users, accurate and widely disseminated in a timely manner. It should be easily accessible to all, for use in informing the efforts of building the nation. Above all, the data collection methodologies should be scientifically acceptable and statistically sound. To this end, the Bureau has always complied with international standards and methodological soundness when producing and disseminating any form of statistics.
Further, a number of statistical committees including; Trade Statistics Committee, Agriculture, Environment and Nutrition Committee, Justice and Security Statistics Committee have also been established and operationalized to ensure production of quality data is achieved. The Bureau has also been training its staff as part of skills development to enhance their technical capacity.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
As the Bureau endeavors to meet its mandate, a myriad of challenges are encountered. These include inadequate resources and office space among others. In addition, the emerging role of the regional economic cooperation and trade negotiations have brought in the challenge of increased demand for quality statistics for informed decision making. The increased demand of data at devolved level as we implement the current Constitution is also a great concern. In an effort to address these challenges, the Government and the development partners have been increasing their support towards development of the National Statistical System (NSS).
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Together with other stakeholders, the Bureau has planned to undertake several initiatives to improve the quality of data production and access. These include among others:
• Formulation of a National Strategy for the Development of Statistics (NSDS). The Strategy once implemented will promote effective coordination between data producers and users, thereby enhancing and ensuring the relevancy, efficiency and timeliness in dissemination of data.
• Revision and rebasing of National Accounts.
• Creation of new and expanded sampling frames to enable the Bureau to generate reliable statistics at the county level.
• Undertake the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey to update health indicators
• Undertake an Agriculture Census to update agricultural indicators and subsequently create a sampling frame to be used in future agricultural surveys.
• Undertake the second Kenya Integrated Household Budget Survey to update various indicators. In particular, new poverty estimates which forms a key input to resource allocations will be derived.
• Undertake a survey of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) to determine their contribution to the Kenya economy and employment creation.
• Development of a new website which has more improved features and is easier to navigate.
• Production of county indicators and preparation of county specific Statistical Abstracts to improve on data access.
The Bureau will soon be engaging other stakeholders to start work of addressing the various statistical flagship projects outlined in the second Medium term Plan (2013-2017) the preparatory stated.
Ladies and gentlemen
The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics is exceptionally pleased to receive the ISO 9001:2008 Quality Management System Certification. Under the current Performance Contract, continuous implementation of ISO 9001:2008 QMS is one of our commitments. As we celebrate this attainment of the ISO certification, we wish to assure our customers, partners, data producers and users that KNBS will continue to implement the QMS. We shall endeavor to uphold efficiency and high standards of performance in order to satisfy our customers. Through this journey, our customers can rest assured that we shall honor all the pledges we have made to them on quality and performance.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Government for the support they have been rendering to the Bureau towards development and production of statistics.
Equally, I thank all the development partners for their technical and financial support.
To the data producers, I thank you for your continued cooperation whenever called upon.
I am also indebted to the, Board members and the staff of KNBS for working as a team as we strive to discharge our mandate.
Finally, I thank the Media and everyone else for finding time to celebrate with us today.
Let us go out and spread the gospel of statistics.
THANK YOU ALL