A census ICT officer was on Friday arrested by police in Manga after using laptop given for the exercise as a collateral for his beer bills, Amos Mariba has confirmed.
The officer, whose name cannot be disclosed, was absent during the pre-listing meeting on Wednesday in Nyamira, raising eyebrows from his employer.
A search mission was immediately launched by the county commissioner but the officer was still at large for the better part of Thursday.
But the officers on Friday arrested him although he was not with the gadget meant to capture data for the Saturday's census exercise for Manga Sub County.
"The ICT census supervisor was issued with a census tablet and a power bank and consequently went missing since Wednesday," said Mariba, the County Census Committee chairman.
Later, the man led the police to a local bar where he had deposited the laptop after failing to clear his beer bills. It could not be established how many bottles he had taken.
Japhan Wachiali, the head of statistics in the region, confirmed interdiction of the officer, saying he had already been replaced.
"We had no option other than to send him home. Already, we have recruited another officer who will be in charge of the affected area," he said.
The exercise is set to establish the poverty index and population in specific regions, which are key in determining resource distribution and mobilisation.
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