File | NATION Kenya’s population increased from 28.7 million in 1999 to 38 million last year. The figures released this morning are expected to include the growth of various ethnic and religious groups. Planning minister Wycliffe Oparanya says the information helps in national development plans.
By Nation Team newsdesk@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted Monday, August 30 2010 at 22:00
In Summary
The goodies provided for in new laws to be shared according to data in census report
Kenya’s population has increased by about 10 million people, or one third in a decade, the 2009 population and housing census, whose results will be released Tuesday morning, is expected to show.
The total count is a little over 38 million, up from 28.7 million in 1999.
Planning minister Mr Wycliffe Oparanya told the Nation on Monday that the national figure is “about 40 million”, meaning that population growth has been steady at one third over the last two decades.
Between 1989 and 1999, the national population grew by 34 per cent from 21.4 million to 28.7 million.
Mr Oparanya said the captured data will be representative of the 47 counties created by the new Constitution.
“The detailed results would also show population growth among various ethnic and religious groups in the country,” he said.
The minister, who spoke to the Nation by telephone from Mombasa, said that apart from the national statistics, the data collected gives details according to districts, constituencies and wards.
Mr Oparanya said giving the population of ethnic and religious groups should be taken positively because it will assist in general national development plans.
He said that, for the first time, population growth would be captured at intervals of five years, a development he said will make it easy to capture the data of both the young and the elderly.
“The report will help the Interim Independent Boundaries Review Commission draw up the boundaries of new administrative units and constituencies,” he said.
The new data will also help identify underdeveloped areas in terms of technology and those lagging behind in education.
“The report will be crucial in poverty index surveys and help the government design better ways of dealing with the situation,” he explained.
The minister defended the government against allegations that the results had been suspiciously delayed, saying that the report had not taken longer than previous ones.
Mr Oparanya said the results will be released Tuesday at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre.
“We have already briefed the President and the Prime Minister about the results and the two principals will not be attending the function,” said Mr Oparanya.
He spoke as top officials from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics held a meeting with journalists, where they revealed that the findings of the census will only be based on the 158 districts that had been created as of December 2008.
The Director of Population and Social Statistics, Dr Collins Opiyo, said that the processing, editing, evaluating and analysis of the data collected on the night of August 24 and 25 last year, had already been completed.
We are all set to go
“We are all set to go … Kenya will be the first African country to release comprehensive census results within one year after the enumeration exercise,” said Dr Opiyo.
A total of Sh8.4 billion was spent to conduct the count.
The release of the findings had previously been postponed several times because of what the government termed “complexities in data analysis”.
Apart from the total number of Kenyans, the results will also show the population distribution by administration and political units as well as by settlement patterns.
“We shall also be sharing data on social and economic characteristics of our population such as education levels, employment status, disability status, ownership of household equipment, housing conditions and available amenities.”
Others include data on tribe, refugees, disability, religion, Information Communication and Technology amongst others.
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