- As president says exercise is geared towards future planning
Saturday and Sunday have been scheduled by the Kenyan government for the general headcount of its citizens. For the first time, the intersex people will also be counted by the government officials making it the first African country to recognise such gender.
Intersex people are born with physical characteristics that do not fit the typical definitions of male or female, Aljazeera described.
A Kenya news media reported the census operation officially started at 6 pm with many Saturday with many Kenyans taking to the social media to describe the questions asked: “were not making sense.”.
The governor of Migori in Kenya, Okoth Obado, advised the government to deploy security officers in Lake Victoria’s Migingo Island so that Kenyans residing in the island can take part in the 2019 national population census.
“With the ongoing harassments, Kenyans living in these areas will be fearful and might opt to skip the census altogether,” Obado said adding that the government must take charge and ensure they are enlisted.
Kenya president, Uhuru Kenyatta, however, noted the exercise will help the government to efficiently plan the future of the citizens.
Mr Kenyatta is quoted by the Kenya Star News to have said; “Mine is to say that I have formally gone through the process. We’ve completed that exercise with my family,”
“Once again I reiterate that this is an exercise that’s is geared towards helping us plan for your future. It is an exercise that is geared towards better utilization of your taxes to ensure that they get to the people. You cannot plan if you do not have the right statistics,” he added.
The census conducted by Kenyan team of enumerators is expected to be completed by the end of today Sunday.
