NAIROBI, Jan. 23 (Xinhua) -- Kenya plans to use smartphones to conduct the 2019 national population and housing census, a senior government official said on Wednesday.

Henry Rotich, cabinet secretary in the National Treasury, told journalists in Nairobi that the government plans to acquire approximately 165,000 mobile devices for use by the census enumerators for the exercise that will take place in August.

"We are going to use mobile technology which will enhance quality of the data as it has in built checks and can correct inconsistent responses as well as cross validate data with other records," Rotich said.

He said that Kenya seeks to follow in the steps of other African countries such as Egypt, Senegal and Ethiopia which have conducted paperless census.

He noted that the last census which was conducted on 2009 indicated that the east African country had a population of slightly less than 39 million people.

He said that the census will provide statistical information on the size, distribution and the characteristics of the Kenya population that will be used to describe and assess the socio-economic and demographic status of the country.