Is 'Nyumba kumi' real?

Sometime back in March 2014, my friend and I were called by our area assistant chief. We did not hesitate.

The meeting took place in his office, not too far away from my home. Our task was simple. Typing names of household clusters, the so-called 'Nyumba Kumi' for the whole of Nyari sub-location which has a total of eight villages. Of course we would not have rejected such a simple task- with Ksh. 1000 waiting.

In the process, we realized that some information was missing. During data collection, the field workers had forgotten to note down the number of people in each household. We quickly reported this observation to the boss but he was never disturbed.

"Just type what you have but make an empty column for what is missing," responded the chief. We obeyed, accomplished and submitted the script.

I was interested in knowing whether he would summon his team of field workers and resend them back to the villages to collect such vital details. Instead, what I saw really left me surprised.

In just about ten minutes or less, he had completed the form. He simply guessed figures like 4, 8, 11, 3, e.t.c, without any reference. So the total population of my area according to the information available in that office is totally wrong.

Something else that caught my attention is the issue of grouping households. I tend to think that the field workers never visited the homes. They simply sat round a table and did the whole thing. How can you have a 'Nyumba Kumi' cluster with households as far apart as 2km in such a densely populated area?

The funniest part of it is that some mature people still do not understand which cluster they belong too, their head and even fellow members!