The public uproar over the 2019 census results continued on Wednesday with disgruntled leaders and residents of Mandera promising to file suits.
Speaking separately, MPs Abdi Mude (Lafey), Adan Haji (Mandera West) and former Senator Billow Kerrow said the statistics agency had “cooked the results”.
They said the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics had made up the numbers in boardrooms instead of capturing the actual population of people on the ground.
Mude spoke to the press in Lafey town after visiting flood victims.
He said that the county leadership was consulting on the best way to handle the matter but that ‘it will definitely end in court’.
“These fake results that we believe were cooked by the KNBS to favour some areas and make us look like we don’t have numbers cannot go unchallenged. The numbers do not add up completely. Even a fool will notice that,” he said.
Mude wondered how the results showed that the region has more men than women.
“In our region, half of the men are married to more than one wife. But here they are telling that we have more men than women,” he said.
The Lafey legislator said that he had gone around his constituency and discovered that several of his constituents had not been captured.
Mandera West MP Haji said the census results were manipulated and do not reflect the accurate numbers in the county.
“As leaders from Mandera and the entire NEP region, we will soon be going to court and ask for the raw data of the exercise. Justice must be seen to be done,” he said.
Kerrow said on Twitter and a TV interview that it was unfortunate to see KNBS fail to get it right despite the resources given to them and having “all the time in this world to plan well for a successful exercise”.
Garissa, Mandera and Wajir counties have a combined population of 2,490,073 a slight increase to the 2.3 million in the 2009 census.
Garissa has 841,350 people, Wajir 781,263 and Mandera 867,457.
KNBS director general Zachary Mwangi has welcomed the complaints from the political leadership saying they were ready to explain why the figures are as they read.
(edited by O. Owino)
