KNBS Director General Zachary Mwangi (pictured) has explained, during a media briefing on Thursday, the agency counted people where they found them on the census night, on not based on the regions, counties or constituencies they come from/CFM – Samuel Wanjohi
NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 7 – Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) Director General Zachary Mwangi has defended the credibility of the 2019 census results released on Monday, even as leaders from various regions questioned its credibility.
Mwangi, during a media briefing on Thursday, explained that the agency counted people where they found them on the census night, on not based on the regions, counties or constituencies they come from.
“We counted people where we found them not where they live, my assurance is that the census was credible. We followed internationally agreed principles and recommendations of conducting a population and housing census,” said Mwangi.
Elected leaders from Tharaka Nithi, North Rift and North Eastern counties have so far rejected the census results claiming they are not a true reflection of the numbers on the ground, vowing to move to court to challenge them.
Garissa Township MP Aden Duale said the figures contradict KNBS numbers collated in the 2009 census as there was no population growth indicated.
Tharaka Nithi leaders led by Governor Muthomi Njuki Wednesday rejected the census results which placed the county’s population at 393, 177.
MPs James Murgor (Keiyo North), Kangongo Bowen (Marakwet East) and Daniel Rono (Keiyo South), also dismissed the findings saying most of their constituents were not enumerated due to rampant cases of insecurity.
READ: Duale, North Rift MPs want census servers opened as data credibility questioned
Mwangi said he will be engaging with the leaders to explain to them how the results came about, adding that population growth or decline is determined by fertility, mortality and migration.
“We are engagement with our leaders so that they can give us time to explain because it’s a point of explanation of what we have done,” he said.
The bureau is set to release a detailed thematic report explaining how migration, mortality and fertility have affected population changes across the country.
The breakdown of data up to the sub location level, as well as age and sex, will also be captured in the detailed report.
From the preliminary results released, the average age of Kenyans hasn’t been tabulated.
Kenya’s new population as announced by KNBS now stands at 47.6 million, with women accounting for 50.5 per cent of the population.
President Uhuru Kenyatta, after receiving the report on Monday, said the data will help the government re-align its development strategies.
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