Kenya census at risk as groups issue boycott threat

The forthcoming national census is at risk as threats to boycott the event continue. Internal refugees in Central Rift Valley and members of the Ogiek community in Mau Forest are the latest to threaten to shun the August 24/25 count.

The displaced are protesting against alleged selective implementation of the resettlement programme while the Ogiek are demanding to be involved in the conservation of Mau Forest.

At a meeting held on Tuesday in Nakuru, the displaced accused the State of applying double standards in the implementation of the resettlement programme.

Through the National IDP Network, an organisation championing their rights, the participants asked why the government was dragging its feet in ensuring that those displaced since 1992 were resettled.

Their spokesmen, Mr Kefa Magenyi and Mr Patrick Githinji, asked the government to restore peace and harmony among various communities in Rift Valley.

They dismissed the newly-constituted Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission as incapable of realising its mandate because its membership was not all-inclusive. Mr Githinji said their organisation supported the creation of a local special tribunal to prosecute the perpetrators of the post-election violence.

Members of the Ogiek community living in Mau Forest also demanded that some of their members evicted from the forest four years ago be allowed to return. “It is wrong to lump the Ogiek with land grabbers. We’ve been involved in the conservation of the forest,” they said.

Meanwhile, the government revealed yesterday that counting households in areas hard hit by the drought will be challenging. Dr Collins Opiyo, a senior Kenya National Bureau of Statistics official told the Nation that a number of people residing in these areas, most of whom were pastoralists, had migrated to neighbouring countries in search of pasture for their animals.

In Kiambu, supervisors training to conduct the census threatened to abandon the count over poor services at their place of learning.

Reports by Simon Siele, Eddy Ngeta, Francis Mureithi, Dave Opiyo and Eric Wainaina