KNBS boss wants powers to revise, nullify census results

A State agency is seeking powers to nullify or adjust census figures ahead of next year's exercise.

The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), in a bill before the National Assembly, wants MPs to grant the director general powers to revise or nullify fabricated census results.

Flawed 2009 census figures irregularly increased the population of Garissa, Mandera and Wajir counties by 708,777.

A proposal to amend the Statistics Act, 2006, is contained in the Miscellaneous Amendment Bill, 2018, headed for the final legislative stage in the House. The existing Act does not give the KNBS boss powers to cancel or adjust census figures.

In the Statistics Act, 2006 , the powers of the KNBS director-general is limited to only announcing the results. This is after establishing that the results are accurate and ensuring confidentiality of information collected.

“The director-general may, with the approval of the board, cause any official statistical data collected, analysed and disseminated by the bureau to be cancelled, revised or adjusted after ascertaining that the data is not accurate,” reads the  Bill in part.

The proposal is part of a raft of amendments KNBS is racing against time to align the Statistics Act, 2006, with the 2010 Constitution before it holds census next year to avoid any court battle on legality of the exercise.

The census to be conducted on the night of August 24th and 25th will cost taxpayers Sh18.5 billion, according to KNBS Director General Zachary Chege. 

Yesterday, National Assembly’s Constitution Implementation Oversight Committee vice-chair Geoffrey King'ang'i (Mbeere South) supported the amendment to curb doctoring of census results.

“The director general needs the powers, from what we have experienced in the past. He is a technical man to know what is credible or not,” Mr King'ang'i told The Standard.

King’angi explained that granting the KNBS boss powers would enable him to nullify or change the results if it is discovered, for instance, that refugees population is maliciously included in the census.

The draft amendment bill also seeks to raise fines to Sh500,000 from Sh100,000 or a one-year jail term for persons found guilty of hindering KNBS officials from conducting the nationwide census.

KNBS officials found redistributing or selling the bureau's material without permission from the director-general will also risk being punished and paying steep fines. At the same time, those who use data from the bureau for investigation of specific individuals or organisations or for any other purpose other than statistical purposes would have committed an offence.

"They shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding five hundred thousand shillings or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding twelve months or both,” states the Bill.

The draft bill does not, however, specify the minimum threshhold with which census results should have been fabricated to necessitate nullification, a situation that may likely lead to loss of taxpayers billions.