MPs threaten census boycott over manual system

Mt Kenya politicians have said they will go to court to stop the upcoming census as the rift with their northern counterparts over use of biometrics widens.

Though the agency charged with carrying out population census may have made it clear that it has dropped plans to use the biometric system during the August national population census, Mt Kenya leaders insist the technology must be used while their northern Kenya counterparts want the manual system to remain.

The Central Kenya leaders say if Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) insists on using manual system, they would mobilise locals in their areas to boycott the exercise.

At the centre of their claim is that after the controversy over the 2009 census statistics from northern Kenya, the minority are getting what they do not deserve in terms of electoral boundaries and revenue allocation among counties, and thereby oppressing the majority.

TECHNOLOGY

The solution to the problem, they say, can only be found if KNBS uses technology to count people.

“Use of biometric kits is the only credible and transparent way of counting people to ensure there is fairness in resource allocation. The 2009 census was fraudulent, skewed and regions where we know there are no numbers came up with figures that cannot be justified,” Mathira MP Rigathi Gachagua says.

Mr Gachagua says if the government fails to use the biometric kits and resolves that the census will be conducted manually, he would mobilise residents to boycott.

Reports that some leaders are inciting locals, especially in Central Kenya, to boycott the census have been rife.

Whether they can actually do it is another question altogether.

SYSTEM FAILURE

KNBS this month announced that it was dropping plans to use technology to enumerate people.

“It will be impossible for us to use the biometric system to conduct the census because of various issues, key among them capturing data of children aged five years and below, who will not have developed reliable biometric features,” the bureau’s director of population, Mr Macdonald Obudho, says.

In their plans, technology will only come in at the point of transmission of census results by the enumerators, with less emphasis on manual backup, a point which concerns frontier counties given that access to mobile and internet network is a challenge in the region, executive director of the Frontier Counties Development Council (FCDC) Mohammed Guleid says.

“Remember during the last elections, almost 11,000 polling stations were said to lack network coverage. Most of those stations were in northern Kenya.

That means the same could affect the transmission of census results. If there is no manual backup, that puts the integrity of the results in doubt,” Mr Guleid says.

INTEGRITY

The council has a membership of 14 counties, among them Lamu, Tana River, Garissa, Wajir, Mandera, Marsabit, Isiolo, Turkana, and West Pokot.

For Central Kenya leaders however, the entire process of enumerating and transmitting data from the field should be electronic to ensure results are credible and accountable.

Deputy Majority Whip in the Senate, Irungu Kang’ata, says that manual enumeration depends on the integrity of the officials involved, and therefore cannot be trusted.

“Biometric enumeration is transparent, verifiable and more objective,” he says, adding that the manual system was abused in 2009 in some parts of the country. We were able to tell that there was manipulation of data because we went back to 1999 figures and used that to come up with a fairly accurate projection based on registered births and deaths and other population dynamics,” Mr Kang’ata says.

FUNDS ALLOCATION

According to him, if KNBS cannot capture the fingers of children, they should be able to do so using other biometric features like the eyes.

Mr Gachagua claims Central Kenya is suffering from underdevelopment due to the current resource allocation formula, which is based on data collected during the last census.

“We feel marginalised in terms of resource allocation; we have high population and we are getting peanuts compared to areas we know have no big population, but the numbers were inflated and are receiving billions (of shillings) which they do not know what to do with it,” the lawmaker says.

DEMOCRACY

Other Central leaders who have joined the call for biometric enumeration are Nyeri Senator Ephraim Maina, Laikipia Governor Ndiritu Muriithi and Nyeri Town MP Ngunjiri Wambugu.

According to Senator Maina, if it was not for the 2009 data, Central region would be more developed since it would be getting its actual share of the national resources.

“We are demanding accuracy and justice. After the last census, there was delimitation of constituencies and some areas were apportioned high numbers of constituencies based on fraudulent numbers. That was abuse of democracy and power. The manipulators of 2009 are still around and have put their plans in place,” he said.

FRAUD

According to Mr Wambugu, because of the alleged fraud in the 2009 census, to date national resources are distributed according to a formula that includes population figures that were queried by KNBS.

“This means there is a very high likelihood that there has been unfair resource distribution,” he explains.

But Mr Guleid says Central leaders’ revisionist approach is much ado about nothing, as KNBS has the final say.

“I know there is a lot of politics about the census. But it seems to be coming from Central Kenya only. I don’t know why they are so concerned. I have not seen people from Western, Coast or other regions talking about it. Even for us, our only concerns were about the issues of logistics, not the census itself," he says.

According to Mr Guleid, the FCDC has an assurance from the bureau’s director-general, Mr Zachary Mwangi, that there will be no use of biometric data and that is what matters.