Amani National Congress party leader Musalia Mudavadi has said that the 2009 census figures were tampered with to favour some regions during polls and in resource allocation.
Mudavadi said that the move had caused unequal resource allocation, becoming a burden to the growth of the country.
“In some areas, population growth could not be understood. The numbers that came out were fictitious and completely out of the norm,” he said
He claimed that those who manipulated the census outcome threatened enumerators when former President Mai Kibaki intervened.
“The Ministry of Interior has promised me that they will have good security for enumerators to ensure that everyone is counted," Mudavadi said.
The ANC leader said he had been assured that the process will be digital to ensure the data collected on August 24-31 is accurate and reliable.
The former vice president was addressing hundreds of locals over the weekend during his tour of the Western Kenya region.
His remarks follow protests by politicians that Mount Kenya votes are always inflated to favour politicians from the region.
“I urge everyone to turn out in large numbers so that people can be counted to help in resource allocation and national planning,” Musalia said.
He said that the information will help the government understand how much to allocate sectors in the economy such as health, transport and education among others.
Mudavadi said the country has to get the count right and every Kenyan should take part to correct malicious data provided during the last exercise.
According to the 2009 census, there were 38,610,097 people in Kenya.
Divided into ethnicities, Kikuyus were 6.62 million, Luhya 5.33 million, the Kalenjin 4.96 million and Luo 4.04 million.
Others were Kamba (3.89 million), Somali (2.38 million), Kisii (2.21 million), Mijikenda (1.96 million), Meru (1.65 million), Turkana (0.99 million), Maasai (0.84 million), Teso (0.33 million) and Embu (0.32 million) among others.
A repeat exercise was ordered in Lagdera, Wajir East, Mandera Central, Mandera East, Mandera West, Turkana Central, Turkana North, and Turkana South after inconsistencies were noted.
The then Planning Minister Wycliffe Oparanya said that the rate of population increase was higher than what birth and death rates would support.
He also added that the age and sex profiles deviated from normal.
