'Some people have played around with figures in the Mt Kenya region in the hopes of changing the course of the 2022 General Election'
Image: ALICE WAITHERA
Kandara MP Alice Wahome has disputed census results that showed Murang’a county has a population of 1,056,640.
Wahome on Monday said it was impossible that more than half a million people in Murang'a participated in the 2017 General Election yet the county's population is just over a million.
She alleged manipulation saying it was clear that some people "have played around with figures in the Mt Kenya region in the hopes of changing the course of the 2022 General Election."
“I have also looked at Kirinyaga and Nyeri results and I am wondering why the region is the only one that has its population decreasing,” Wahome said.
The two counties have populations of 610,411 and 759,164 respectively according to the census results released by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics on Monday.
The MP said it would be very wrong for some people to conspire to portray the region as less populated for political reasons.
She said it is impossible to accept the results and that reasons have to be given on why the numbers have decreased.
The Star was unable to independently verify Wahome's claims given there were no counties in 2009 when the last national count was conducted.
The lawmaker asked investigative agencies including the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission and to probe the matter.
“This is the only sense I can make out of the results and it is appalling to think that someone would think of spinning the results to tilt perceptions ahead of the next elections without considering the effect it will have on development in the region,” Wahome said.
She said all development funds are decided by the number of people in an area, including the allocation of CDF.
“Kandara alone had over 72,000 presidential votes and the county has 7 constituencies. We are all shocked that the results are not the way we expected them to be and clearly something has gone wrong.”
Wahome called for a meeting of regional leaders to discuss the census results for a common stand.
She was speaking during the handing over of an office to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations in Kandara town. The office was constructed by CDF.
Area MCA Francis Kibe said the census results should be scrutinised.
The ward representative said the results indicate that the 35 wards in the county each have a population of just over 28,000 which she termed impossible.
“If these figures are not right, then Murang’a people will be disadvantaged in the distribution of resources,” Kibe said.
The MCA said children are often twice or thrice the number of adults and therefore the results cannot be right, going by the 2017 election results.
Nominated MCA Diana Muthoni said it was impossible for the population to decrease yet so many children are being born every day. “Are they then telling us that many of those who voted in the last elections have died?” she said.
edited by peter obuya