NEW MINI-CENSUS TO BE CONDUCTED IN NEP
Posted: Wed Aug 03, 2011 12:18 am
http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Treasury+r ... index.html
The government has set aside more than Sh400 million to conduct a recount of the population in eight districts where 2009 census results were cancelled last year.
Planning minister Wycliffe Opranya said the process had been delayed due to lack of funding. “It has nothing to do with our willingness, but rather our financial ability to do it,” he said.
The minister said the Treasury had allocated the money in this year’s budget to conduct the exercise again. And this week, officials from his ministry met to plan for the recount, but a new date has not yet been set.
Results for the Kenyan Somali and Turkana populations were cancelled because of what Mr Oparanya termed inconsistencies in expected numbers when he announced the results last August.
The affected districts are Lagdera, Wajir East, Mandera Central, Mandera East and Mandera West, all of which are in North Eastern Province, which borders Somalia.
Other affected districts re Turkana Central, Turkana North and Turkana South that border the Kakuma refugee camp.
Cancelling the results last year, Mr Oparanya said the inconsistencies were discovered after an analysis was carried out after the census in August 2009.
“The rate of increase is higher than the population dynamics. If you look at birth and death rates, they cannot support those figures. Age and sex profiles also deviate from the norm,” said the minister while releasing the results last year.
He said the analysis revealed that men outnumbered women by three to one. “In those areas, we were wondering how men above 35 stay without women. In other cases, there is a balance of 50-50 or women are slightly higher.”
Not consistent
In addition, he said, the household size was also not consistent with the population size. “If there is a population growth, you expect households to increase. The per capita per house is very high and the number of households very few,” Mr Oparanya said.
The cancelled results indicated that Lagdera has 245,123 people, Wajir East 224,418, Mandera Central 417,294, Mandera East 288, 687 and Mandera West 319,772. Turkana Central had 254,606, Turkana North 374,414 and Turkana South 226,379.
Of major concern were the “abnormally” high figures recorded from the Somali community.
This has caused security fears at a time when talk of al Shabaab militia infiltrating the country is rife. In total, the results indicated that the population of Kenyan ethnic Somalis had more than doubled over the past decade to 2,385,572 from the less than 800,000 recorded in the 1999 count. This made the Somali community the sixth largest in the country.
Some Sh8.4 billion was spent to conduct the last census, with much of that money being payments to the census staff.
The government has set aside more than Sh400 million to conduct a recount of the population in eight districts where 2009 census results were cancelled last year.
Planning minister Wycliffe Opranya said the process had been delayed due to lack of funding. “It has nothing to do with our willingness, but rather our financial ability to do it,” he said.
The minister said the Treasury had allocated the money in this year’s budget to conduct the exercise again. And this week, officials from his ministry met to plan for the recount, but a new date has not yet been set.
Results for the Kenyan Somali and Turkana populations were cancelled because of what Mr Oparanya termed inconsistencies in expected numbers when he announced the results last August.
The affected districts are Lagdera, Wajir East, Mandera Central, Mandera East and Mandera West, all of which are in North Eastern Province, which borders Somalia.
Other affected districts re Turkana Central, Turkana North and Turkana South that border the Kakuma refugee camp.
Cancelling the results last year, Mr Oparanya said the inconsistencies were discovered after an analysis was carried out after the census in August 2009.
“The rate of increase is higher than the population dynamics. If you look at birth and death rates, they cannot support those figures. Age and sex profiles also deviate from the norm,” said the minister while releasing the results last year.
He said the analysis revealed that men outnumbered women by three to one. “In those areas, we were wondering how men above 35 stay without women. In other cases, there is a balance of 50-50 or women are slightly higher.”
Not consistent
In addition, he said, the household size was also not consistent with the population size. “If there is a population growth, you expect households to increase. The per capita per house is very high and the number of households very few,” Mr Oparanya said.
The cancelled results indicated that Lagdera has 245,123 people, Wajir East 224,418, Mandera Central 417,294, Mandera East 288, 687 and Mandera West 319,772. Turkana Central had 254,606, Turkana North 374,414 and Turkana South 226,379.
Of major concern were the “abnormally” high figures recorded from the Somali community.
This has caused security fears at a time when talk of al Shabaab militia infiltrating the country is rife. In total, the results indicated that the population of Kenyan ethnic Somalis had more than doubled over the past decade to 2,385,572 from the less than 800,000 recorded in the 1999 count. This made the Somali community the sixth largest in the country.
Some Sh8.4 billion was spent to conduct the last census, with much of that money being payments to the census staff.