• The census is being unduly exploited by political figures to sensationally stir either political anxiety or appetite for political representation and share of the national resources.
• In turn, what we are seeing is the stimulation of ethnic suspicion and tensions ahead of the 2022 General Election.
The 2019 Kenya population census data is out. But just like in the past tallies, all that the data dwell on is abstract social numbers rather than practical social needs and assessment of the status of distributive justice at the national and county level.
Even more unfortunate is that this tally is being unduly exploited by political figures to sensationally stir either political anxiety or appetite for political representation and share of the national resources. And in turn, what we are seeing is the stimulation of ethnic suspicion and tensions ahead of the 2022 General Election.
In the foregoing pettiness, something important is forgotten. This is the fact that Kenya belongs to all of us and no community is self-supporting enough to think that they can only thrive by their "tribal" successes and numbers at the expense of the collective welfares.
We have many instances where social affinity for our clans and tribes were proven to be faithless as hand-up support in one way or another came from elsewhere. The same goes for our collective pride and dignity which is hoisted and elevated by Kenyans from various ethnic extractions.
Again, the same way that life is full of surprises we are also taught to treat all people with the dignity they deserve because we are not sure in the end who will dig our graves when we finally take our last breathe.
This country has got enough resources to take care of everyone's need, but not greed. Much of the scarcity that we are confronted with today is artificial and has a lot to do with poor economics and corruption which needs a bloodless revolution at the ballot to bring change that will end rogue leadership that appeals to our fears and ethnic instincts instead of our collective dreams and deepest hopes.
Mohamed is a social-political commentator in Garissa county