Kiai warns Kenya against census as tension rises

Kenya should not risk carrying out a census in the face of rising political tension, human rights activist Maina Kiai warned on Monday.

Mr Kiai, a former chairman of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR), said the antagonism between President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga was a clear sign of the strained state of affairs in Kenya.

“We can all see the rising political tension. This is the first time the Prime Minister is telling the President off,” the activist, who was speaking in Nairobi at the launch of a project to fight impunity on gender-based violence, said.

Mr Odinga tore into President Kibaki on Sunday and repeated the attack on Monday, accusing the Head of State of sidelining and contradicting him in government decisions.

Said Mr Kiai: “In Kenya, whenever political tension rises, ethnic tensions also rise. This is what is now happening all over the country.”

He dismissed the census as another political gimmick, saying communities will be trying to manipulate the numbers.

“Every community will want to outdo the other. And it is the enumerators who will be trying to increase the numbers of their people. I don’t know how the tallying centre will be managed,” Mr Kiai said.

Planning minister Wycliffe Oparanya recently announced that a national population and housing census, which was last conducted in 1989, will be done on August 24 2009.