This archive report was first published on 31 August 2019.
Kenya's sixth national census, conducted between August 24 and 31, was a significant undertaking that exposed the bottled-up anger among citizens towards the government.
According to reports, there were numerous cases of citizens resisting the census, with nearly 100 people arrested across the country for either attacking or obstructing census personnel from undertaking their duties.
One of the most disturbing incidents involved a rape and assault on enumerators, highlighting the level of resistance and hostility faced by the census team.
President Uhuru Kenyatta's Jubilee administration has been struggling to fulfill its promises to the citizens, with the economic downturn continuing to bite. However, what has angered the people most is the runaway corruption and the apparent push for questionable projects at ridiculous costs.
As Prof Nyaga Kindiki, a lecturer at Moi University, noted, 'Kenyans feel suffocated. They have been promised many things that are yet to be fulfilled.'
The census, which was the first paperless count, involved the use of over 165,000 tablets and 138,572 enumerators, 22,268 content supervisors, and 2,467 ICT supervisors.
Notably, the government spent $60 million on the National Integrated Identity Management System, called Huduma Namba, to establish a master population register that will be the only single source of identity for any person in Kenya. Some 38 million Kenyans were registered.
Three months later, another $178 million was spent on the national census, with Ethiopia planning to conduct its 2020 census for just $129 million.
