Our population has risen, not declined, say Mandera MCAs

MCAs in Mandera have rejected the 2019 census results resealed on Monday which show that the population in the county has declined over the last 10 years.

The results showed that the county has a population of 867,000, down from about one million people in the 2009 census.

“As leaders of Mandera County, we totally reject the results released on Monday and term it a sham, fallacy and a misrepresentation of our numbers,” the ward representatives said in a statement read by Majority Leader Abdi Adan Ali.

POLITICS

They accused the national government of what they termed a deliberate effort to discredit the 2009 population and housing census results.

“We cannot accept a notion that a government agency can incorporate political propaganda into key policy decisions that will negatively affect generations,” they said.

The county lawmakers said they will not be part of what they called normalisation of impunity and vowed to seek legal redress to have the whole results annulled.

After court tussles, Mandera’s population was captured at 1,025,756 people in 2009 census.

RAW DATA

“The 2019 results are incorrect since they were subjected to massaging and political correctness of the State,” claimed Mr Ali.

The MCAs claimed that the raw data submitted by the enumerators placed the population of Mandera higher than in 2009.

According to the MCAs, Mandera’s population has grown by 58 percent, resulting to a population of about 1.62 million people as per the county’s fertility rate.

They claimed the same figure was captured in the raw data submitted to Kenya National Bureau of Statistics.

Their claim could not be verified since the said the raw data was not readily available.

“We are surprised that without a calamity, epidemic or a disaster in Mandera in the past 10 years, our population has reduced from above a million to 867,457,” he said.

TECHNOLOGY USE

They argued that the results announced were against the United Nations fundamental principles of official statistics of relevancy, impartiality and equal access.

“It remains inescapable that technology was used to manipulate census results,” maintained the legislators in their statement.

They reasoned that there was no way a county cited to have the highest fertility rate can fail in population numbers during enumeration.

“In 2014, the demographic and health survey showed Mandera was among counties with the highest fertility rate but it is ironical that our population has decreased,” said Mr Ali.

They questioned how Kirinyaga, with 81 percent usage of family planning and Kiambu with 74 percent, can attain 50 percent growth in population while Mandera with a two percent usage of family planning attained a reduced population of 15percent.

DISSOLVE CONSTITUENCIES

Another section of MCAs drawn from Lafey and Mandera West expressed fears that the two constituencies could be dissolved.

The two failed to meet the constitutional population threshold of 114,889 people.

“The 2019 sham results put Mandera at risk of losing two constituencies and we shall not accept it because the results were not a true reflection of our population,” said Mr Abdullahi Siyad Adan.

He said residents of the two constituencies risk being marginalised again if their constituencies are scrapped.

The local elders’ council also joined in rejecting the results.

“We have more people than what the government has announced and as a council of elders we reject the results,” said Mr Osman Rakiso.

Governor Ali Roba also rejected same results, vowing to move to court to challenge the figures.