Oparanya: Tribe question indispensable

By Joel Okwayo and Susan Anyangu

The Planning Minister has defended the controversial question on tribe during the National Census.

There has been heated debate on stating of one’s ethnicity during the August 24 exercise, with some calling for its removal.

Yesterday, Mr Wycliff Oparanya and Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) said the data would help in planning for health, education and cultural issues.

Speaking in his Butere Constituency, Oparanya said the Ministry of Health, for instance, uses tribe to determine some common diseases among a community and plan for health provision.

"Feeding habits are also associated with various tribes and the details are necessary in our planning, especially on food security," said Oparanya.

The minister said the census would not achieve some of its objectives if the tribe clause is ignored.

And KNBS Director-General Anthony Kilele said omitting ethnic background would invalidate the results.

"For a census to be valid, it needs to provide a complete picture of the characteristics of a country’s population. Ethnic composition is part of that picture," said Mr Kilele.

International guidelines

He said stating one’s ethnicity would also help the census comply with international standards recommended by the United Nations.

"Since 1948, the UN has always collected ethno-cultural characteristics of world population, including ethnic groups, religion and language, and it publishes these in the Demographic Yearbook. To comply with international guidelines, all countries collect ethno-cultural data," Kilele told The Standard.

Oparanya said census staff would be deployed at airports, railways stations and all border points to count those on transit.