Balambala MP Abdi Shurie has written to Kenya National Bureau of Statistics over what he termed as manipulated 2019 census results.
Through Issa and Company Advocates, the lawmaker claimed the report published by the state agency on November 4, 2019 does not reflect correct population of his constituency.
The letter is addressed to director general of KNBS and copied to the Attorney General.
The letter claims that the results were manipulated to achieve a well documented campaign to delegitimize and cancel 2009 census results for the constituencies in the three counties of Garissa, Wajir and Mandera.
Detailing confrontations between North Eastern counties and the state over disputed 2009 census results, the MP said KNBS mounted deliberate efforts and unlawfully lowered the census figures for the three counties.
After the 2019 census results were released, North Eastern leaders among them National Assembly Majority Leader Aden Duale and the governors of Wajir, Mandera and Garissa strongly disputed the numbers.
They promised to seek legal redress claiming the region was under-counted.
Shurie claimed that the 2014 Demographic and Health Survey and 2015-2016 Kenya Integrated Household Budget Survey (KIHBS) confirm that the household numbers, size and birth rates in Garissa, Wajir and Mandera were higher than the rest of the country.
In Balambala, he said the recruitment of cartographic mapping exercise for the subcounty was bungled at the initial stage through recruitment of fewer enumerators.
“Regrettably, the additional enumerators who comprised of police officers who had never been trained for the exercise were airlifted to Balambala and only commence on the third day of the census. No extension was granted by KNBS at the end of the seven-day exercise, notwithstanding the delay,” read the letter seen by the Star
Shurie demanded that KNBS all the mobile devices used to enumerate and transmit results in Balambala be secured.
He also wants copies of all serial numbers, make and specification of each tablet (mobile device) deployed in all enumerators in the constituency.
The lawmaker also demands the list and number of enumerators deployed to Balambala subcounty as well as copies of all test reports for each mobile device.
He also wants copies of transmission reports for each mobile device deployed as well as copies of exit reports for mobile devices in the area.
The letter, according to a close confidant of the MP, is in preparation for a court battle in the coming months.
