The number of Somalis will be 4 million and it will shock Kenyans—Farah

Farah Maalim in past photo. (courtesy)

NAIROBI—The number of Somalis will shock Kenyans, former deputy speaker in the Tenth Parliament has said.

Speaking after he donated books worth sh70,000 books to the Daadab Book Fair, Farah Maalim said data to be captured in the upcoming national census next year will see an upsurge in the number of people who will indenify as ethnically Somalis.

“The data will shock Kenyans,” Maalim said in an interview with Radio Midnimo on the sidelines of the bookfair in Eastleigh.

“I think the Somalis will number well above the 4 million mark,” he added, “It will shock those who disputed the 2009 census on the number of Somalis.

He was referring to the former minister of Planning and now governor of Kakamega Wycliffe Oparanya who disputed the number, allegeing that it was inflated.

In February 2012, then Minister for Planning Wycliffe Oparanya tabled a revised post census figures in Parliament showing that peoples’ figures in the 8 sub counties were inflated in the 2009 population count.

The inflated figures read that the two regions had 2.35 million people but the then Minister’s figures read 1.3 million people as the actual population size.

The 2009 census results which were contested from eight sub-counties in Mandera and Garissa counties will now be gazetted.

The Court of Appeal set aside orders barring the National Bureau of Statistics from using, gazetting or publishing the revised census results from 8 sub counties in North Eastern on account that they were not reflecting the population in the area.

The census touched on Lagdera, Mandera East, Mandera Central, Mandera West, Wajir East, Turkana North, Turkana South and Turkana Central districts.

After four years of hearing the case, a five-judge bench ruled that the High Court erred as its orders denied policy makers and Government crucial information for planning purposes. The Judges are Erastus Githinji, Hannah Okwengu, John Mwera, GBM Kariuki and Festus Githinji.

The latest Household Survey shows that Somalis’ families are at least one and a half times bigger than the average household in Kenya, and twice as much as the families in Nyeri, Nairobi, Mombasa and Kiambu counties.

Wajir, Mandera and Garissa counties, which are home to most Kenyan Somalis, have between six and seven children on average, according to the Kenya Integrated Household Budget Survey (KIHBS), 2015/16.