Reduced Growth Rate, Household Size in Kenya Evidence of Contraceptives, Bishops Decry

“We should look at life and having children as something which is very valuable. In our African culture, children are looked as gifts from God,” he said and emphasized, “We have to promote a culture of life in Kenya and really promote the family so that our families have children, they appreciate children and they support children.”

“This census has shown us that we have been raided and one of the greatest goods in our African culture has been taken, such that people have decided that the best wealth of having children is no longer our wealth,” said Archbishop Anthony Muheria of Nyeri in reference to the introduction of contraceptives, something contrary to African values and Catholicism.

He added, “The Catholic Church has always been saying that the greatest gift and this is our African culture is children, it is family.”

“Perhaps if the census had taken the number of cars you would have been very shocked, the number of TVs you would have been very shocked. We have changed children with cars and TVs, it is very unfortunate,” Archbishop Muheria, a member of the Opus Dei lamented.

According to Anthony Weru, a Catholic faithful of Nairobi Archdiocese, “Family planning whether within the confines of the Church or the conventional means is taking place at a great rate especially in the Central region and some parts of western Kenya.”

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The 2019 census results were released against the backdrop of preparations around the United Nations’ (UN) International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD25), which various Church leaders have described as “destructive to humanity and the values around human life.”

“This ICPD conference is coming to sell neocolonialism to us,” Archbishop Muheria in an interview with ACI Africa and added, “It is coming to push us once more into a corruption of our families.”

 “We must wake up to the reality that our very culture and essence is being threatened. They (conference organizers) want to tell teachers to kill our children so that the land can be for them, this is a reality,” Archbishop Muheria told ACI Africa.

The census figures show that there are more women in Kenya (24 million) than men (23.6 million).

“The 2019 census results confirmed the widely unsaid known fact that the 2009 census was doctored to suit certain political expediency which has haunted the implementation of the Constitution in regard to revenue sharing and allocation of equal government funds based on population,” Anthony Weru, an Independent Public Policy Analyst based in Nairobi told ACI Africa.

This result should bring about sober policy decisions (non-political) on representation, allocation of resources as well as capacities of some counties with huge allocation without the absorption mechanism for utilization, Weru suggests.

Other demographic details of the Kenya’s population are yet to be released, including population distribution by age, socio-economic status, religion, education levels, housing, disability, among other relevant details. According to a government media report, “These reports will be released before end August 2020.”