What is the national census about? Turns out it depends on whom you ask. Kenya National Bureau of Statistics Director General Zachary Mwangi would tell you the primary objective of the exercise is to collect information on the size, composition, distribution and socio-economic characteristics of the population.
This information is used in planning, budgeting, policy formulation, resource allocation, creation of administrative and political units, research and a host of other important work done by the state and other parties. The theme of this year’s census was: ‘Counting our people for sustainable development and devolution services’.
The results of the headcount were released on November 4. We are 47.6 million, up from 37.7 million a decade ago. Congratulations to all who put in serious efforts in the past decade to grow the numbers!
But, alas, all that the media saw in those numbers was the politics of 2022 elections – who is likely to win or lose.
“Numbers game: How Census affects 2022,” the Nation headline read on November 5. “The census results announced yesterday will have a huge impact on the 2022 numbers game, sending politicians eyeing the highest seat in the country back to the drawing board,” the paper reported.
“While some regions will lose constituencies, others will gain additional electoral areas and representation – a key factor should the country adopt a parliamentary system of governance.”
“Census results to shape 2022 election trends,” the People Daily echoed the Nation. “In a country in which elections are virtually an ethnic census, political strategists are likely to examine the numbers with a toothcomb,” Kenya’s free newspaper predicted.
“Luhya, Kikuyu and Kalenjin to decide Kenya’s political future”, the Star headline read.
“President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto’s strongholds control nearly half of Kenya’s 47.6 million population, significantly shaping the battle for numbers in 2022,” the scribes at Lion Place reported.
In its usual style of looking for something to “shock” people, the Standard declared: “Census shock for big tribes.” (Two days previously, on Sunday, November 3, the Standard headline was: “Census shocker that awaits you”. And three days before that, “Shocking opulence of fake gold suspect”, October 30.) Mombasa Road should consider patenting the word “shock”.
“The census results that triggered a mixed reaction, mostly in vote-rich areas, was released in a record three months”, the paper reported, unable to resist reading the 2022 election into the numbers.
Do you notice how Kenyan newspapers love that horrible word tribe, the Standard putting it on its splash? “Tribe” has terrible colonial undertones and should be discarded, hey!
Reading the papers, the 2019 census was framed in terms of the next election. If you speak to many Kenyans, journalists included, you get the impression that people are tired of the endless preoccupation with politics. Nearly everything happening in the public domain is politicized.
No one is able to think about the census in terms of what KNBS had in mind, given the media framing. How does this help the nation? Politics is important, certainly, but surely life is much more than contests for power.
“The census outcome shouldn’t be looked into based on 2022 political alignments. This is a diabolical habit among politicians. KNBS’s core mandate is to collect, compile, analyse, publicize and disseminate statistical information for public use,” Emmanuel Eprong of Nairobi wrote in a letter to Star on November 6 (p.18).
“Unfortunately, the top political brass has pegged the just released results to the 2022 polls.”
Eprong is correct – except that he barked up the wrong tree. It was the media, not the politicians (or are they the same?), who first framed the census results as 2022 mazematiks.
