National Assembly deputy Speaker Farah Maalim led a group of Northern Kenya MPs in vowing to rally their electorate against a planned repeat census in the region terming it "illegal and unnecessary" August 10, 2011. FILE
By JOHN NGIRACHU jngirachu@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted Wednesday, August 10 2011 at 12:55
Posted Wednesday, August 10 2011 at 12:55
Northern Kenya MPs have vowed to rally their electorate against a planned repeat census in the region terming it "illegal and unnecessary".
The MPs led by Northern Kenya Development minister Mohammed Elmi and Deputy Speaker Farah Maalim alleged Wednesday that a repeat of the exercise is a ploy to reduce the number of constituencies and continue their “institutionalised marginalisation".
“We will not accept any more and any longer to be treated as second class citizens. There will be no repeat census. If you want to repeat it, you’ll repeat it for the whole of Kenya,” said Mr Maalim, who read the statement on their behalf.
They were joined at the press conference at Parliament Buildings by assistant ministers Aden Duale (Livestock Development), Josephat Nanok (Forestry), Mohamed Mahamud (Energy) and MPs Rachel Shebesh and Wilson Litole.
They have asked President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga to take responsibility and prevent the Planning Ministry from repeating the census.
The census results for eight districts in northern Kenya were cancelled because of unusual men-women ratios and a huge divergence from the projected figures from past population counts.
There was also concern that the number of Kenyan Somalis had more than doubled from 800,000 in 1999 to 2.3 million in 10 years, creating fear that some had crossed over from Somalia.
The affected districts are: Lagdera, Wajir East, Mandera Central, Mandera East, Mandera West, Turkana Central, Turkana North and Turkana South.
Planning minister Wycliffe Oparanya said at the release of the 2009 census results that the rate of increase in those areas was higher than the population dynamics and could not be supported by the birth and death rate statistics.
Men outnumbered women three to one and there was a large number of men above 35 who were not married, whereas in most cases, there is a balance or women are slightly more.
Treasury has released Sh400 million to cater for the controversial repeat but the MPs contend that the money could be better used to provide relief food in those areas.
“This has never been brought to Cabinet and I have written to Oparanya about it and said I’d break with collective responsibility and go against it,” said Mr Elmi.
He said it would not be technically possible to have a repeat census and the Ministry would be in defiance of a court injunction if it went ahead and repeated the count.
Mr Elmi said the revision of population figures would lead to a revision of the controversial report of the defunct Interim Independent Boundaries Review Commission and create a crisis.
Mr Maalim explained that census only involved those in urban areas and settlements, and the increase occurred due to communities being forced to abandon pastoralism and settle in the towns.
Mr Nanok was blunt: “The people of northern Kenya are sharp shooters. They produce more men and women.”
This is the second time in three weeks that leaders from the affected regions have vowed to have the repeat census stopped, with former MPs speaking about it last week.
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