Atheists dismiss census report, say they are over 1.5 million

File photo of Atheists in Kenya (AIK) president Harrison Mumia during a past interview. [Standard]

Atheists in Kenya Society have rejected the 2019 Censor Report released last week Friday by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) terming it as incredible.  

The report shows that there are Sh755, 750 atheists in Kenya, a figure which has been highly refuted by the President of the Atheist in Kenya Society, Harrison Mumia.

“We find those statistics to be grossly inaccurate and not fit for the purpose. We contend that we have well over 1.5 million atheists in Kenya,” said Mumia in a press statement to newsrooms.

Mumia added that their number is growing steadily as opposed to the reports finding that atheists have reduced by almost 200, 000 compared to the 2009 censors report which recorded 922,128 atheists.

“We find it odd that the number has declined by almost 200,000 in a span of 10 years yet the population of Kenya has increased by 10 million over the same period,” said Mumia.

For this reason, Mumia opined the alleged inaccuracies have thrown the entire report into doubt.

The Society wants an independent review of how KNBS came to the said figures.

On religion and ethnic affiliations, the report showed that majority (85.5 per cent) of the population are Christians with Protestants, Catholics and Evangelical churches accounting for 33.4, 20.6 and 20.4 per cent respectively.

Muslims account for 11 per cent of the entire population.

The data also showed that there are 318,727 traditionists and 60,287  Hindus.