Ignore query on tribe, rights watchdog tells Kenyans

By Maseme Machuka

A human rights group has asked Kenyans not to answer the ethnicity question in today’s census.

Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) now wants people to shun the question and be enumerated as just Kenyans.

Pressure from civil society groups failed to convince the Government to drop the question with the State insisting the question is indispensable.

The Government wants to know the number of people in each of the country’s 42 recognised tribes.

Kenya National Bureau of Statistics Director General Anthony Kilele said fears by some lobbyists were misplaced, adding it was good for Government to ask people about their ethnicity. KHRC questioned why the tribe code was necessary when past exercises "have never indicated the results of the tribes".

KNBS says the question was asked but the information never released. The lobby said it was not good to ask the tribe question when Kenyans are yet to recover from post-poll chaos.

Mr Kilele said the question had been answered well during a Ministry of Planning pilot census.

He said: "We have established Kenyans are comfortable with answering the tribe question."

KHRC Legal Officer Christine Alai and Deputy Executive Director Tom Kagwe said census must not count on ethnic groups.