This archive report was first published on 2 September 2019.
The 2019 national census in Kenya, which took place from August 24 to August 31, was marred by a series of bizarre and disturbing incidents.
According to reports, census officials and enumerators faced various challenges, including insecurity, hostility, and non-compliance from the public in some areas.
One of the most shocking incidents occurred in Maseno, Kisumu County, where a census enumerator was gang raped by unknown attackers on the first night of the exercise. The victim was reportedly ambushed outside her gate after she had been dropped off by her supervisor and was hospitalized after the traumatic incident.
In another incident, a couple in Kisumu was arrested for allegedly attacking a chief and a village elder who had accompanied census officers to their house in Obunga slums. The man, identified as Richard Ochieng, allegedly bit the fingers of a village elder, while his wife hit the area assistant chief with a piece of brick, injuring his thigh.
Other bizarre incidents included an IT supervisor in Nyamira who was arrested for mortgaging census gadgets to buy alcohol, and an enumerator in Muranga County who showed up drunk and urinated at a resident's house during the census.
