The Nyamira County Governor, John Nyagarama and some legislatures from the County have disputed the Census results released by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), saying it’s not a true reflection of the County’s population status.
The Governor was addressing the press on Tuesday, reacting to the just released 2019 Census results, saying ten years is a long time to have such a small population growth in the region.
“These results are disappointing to us as a County because the figures given are not realistic at all. 10 years is a long time and we cannot just have increased our population by only 7,000 person(s). It’s one of the most unrealistic counts, done in the Country,” Complained Nyagarama.
The Governor instead noted that the population is projected to approaching 700,000 and not the 605,576 as indicated by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), a body mandated to count the Kenyan population up from 598,000 in 2009.
“The information we have from the Health Information Management System indicate that children born between 2009 and 2019 is over 100,000. While registered deaths are about 17,000 with an estimation of about 10,000 immigrants over the 10 year period lapse,” Governor Nyangarama, explained.
“Slow population growth will greatly affect the financial resource allocation because chances are that it will be highly reduced if they base it on the current 2019 untrue census results the reason why I have come to strongly demand for an audit of these results,” he decried.
The Esise Ward Member of the County Assembly (MCA), Joseph Nyarangó, supported the Governors’ sentiments, saying the results simply indicates that our women and wives are no longer giving birth despite improved health care.
“I’m highly suspecting that it could have that those residents who were angered because their children were not included in the limited census job opportunities, mobilized their households and their neighbours to boycott the exercise, are some of the people who were not counted.” He speculated.
Another Bomwagamo Ward MCA, Charles Barongo, said that the report is not true and an investigation of the numbers need to be done to ascertain the figures.
On the Contrary, the Nyamira County Commissioner (CC), Amos Mariba, confirmed that the census results is a true reflection of the population of Nyamira because most people who work in Nyamira live in Kisii and those who hail from Nyamira, are in various parts of these country where they were counted.
“We ensured that every household was counted during the census exercise and areas like Borabu Sub-County are very expansive but the population figures are very low as residents in the Sub-County are out in various parts of the country struggling to earn a living,”Mariba stated.
Census results has emitted mixed reactions countrywide concerning the high or low population figures which have an implications on yearly financial budgets for various regions.
By Deborah Bochere/Dan Nyamanga
