Queries over NEP figures
What you need to know:
Kajwang’ denies the figures were boosted by illegal immigrants citing high birth rate
The sharp rise in the population of Somalis is due to a high birth rate.
The Immigration ministry said it was not due to the influx of refugees from war-torn Somalia, as advanced by experts.
Census results released by Planning Minister Wycliffe Oparanya show Kenyan Somali are the sixth most populous ethnic group with 2,385,572 people, behind the Kikuyu, Luhya, Kalenjin, Luo and Kamba.
North Eastern province’s population has risen almost three-fold, from 962,143 ten years ago to 2,310,757 last year.
Census officials had projected a population of 1,394,367. In all the other provinces, the projected population turned out to be higher.
They cited anomalies in eight districts, five of them in North Eastern, and ordered a repeat census. They were Mandera Central, Mandera East, Mandera West, Lagdera, Wajir East, Turkana Central, Turkana South and Turkana North.
In these districts, the growth rate does not correspond with the birth and death rates, the age and sex profiles deviate from the norm and there was a significant growth in the household sizes without accompanying growth in number of households.
Dr Joachim Osur, a reproductive health and population expert attributed the unusual population increase in the province to the influx of refugees, high fertility rates and low use of family planning methods.
Similar views were echoed by Dr Sarah Onyango, the regional director of Planned Parenthood Federation of America International which supports reproductive rights of marginalised populations.
Dr Onyango said: “When the growth rate is higher than the birth and death rate, the only conclusion is in-migration.”
North Eastern, Rift Valley and Nairobi are the only provinces where men outnumber women, but even then, it is only in the three Turkana districts that men outnumber women in Rift Valley province.
In a previous interview, Mr Oparanya attributed the male-female ratio in Nairobi to rural-urban migration.
But Immigration Minister Otieno Kajwang’ ruled out the influx of refugees saying there were not more than 350,000, most of whom are in refugee camps and were counted.
Dr Kimani Murungaru of the department of Population Studies at the University of Nairobi said more time is needed to study the true picture in the area.
