Pollution of civic space

On one part, politicians from all walks of the political divide were on mainstream and social media urging 'their' people to return 'home' and be counted there. Such a shame, I dare say. Home, I would contend, is where you lay your head to sleep, hardly where you ancestors lived. If we were to look at the facts of the ask, and assuming that, truly, the derived statistics inform allocation of national cake, where would one want to be enumerated and therefore allocate resources? I would imagine that one would want to be counted where he/she pays taxes at, and receives (or expects to receive) services at. It is foolhardy to direct your vote for resources (by attending the census) to your 'home' county, and subsequently demand for better services to your 'visited' County which subsequently receives less due to your resource vote. It is inconceivable that one should do that, when majority would only spend a tiny fraction of their active year in the 'home'.

At the Leaders summit, each speaker punctuated their presentation with the call for everyone to embrace the national identity, and not to ask "what is your second name". However, it wasn't lost to me that the rhetoric of going 'home' to be counted also resonated at the summit. Even when we assume that national identity, and knowing that the least of us still gets a share derived from the collective tax, isn't going home similar to declaring your second name in bold? 

This then brings me to the content of the census itself. First, I have an issue with the ethnicity question in the census. Just like 10 years ago, when I declined to state my tribe to the state, I intend to decline to state it. I have not been convinced that there has been fundamental justification for the state machinery to have that information. For what planning purpose exactly does government need ethnic information for? Nothing but negative rhetoric will emerge from this component of the statistical analysis. It doesn't  matter a whimp if the Maasai, for example, have become the most populous community. In fact we should not even know that they have, because it will only prepare ground for them to be disturbed by political dimwits trying to buy their democratic ability to decide conscientiously. 

The sneaking in of the 'Hujuma' aka Huduma number queries in the census is a blatant abuse of the census process , a direct violation of the law (Statistics Act) , and a contempt of court since the court has previously clearly pronounced itself on the Huduma number. The suggestion that respondents are required to provide identity documents, or their details thereof in the event they have not been 'Hudumuad' (registered to receive the Huduma number) is a contravention of the minimum expectation of privacy desired for in the census process. The government has cleverly omitted to declare that such information, whilst may possibly be asked for, cannot be demanded for. Such information can only be provided by a respondent upon issuance of consent as expressed for by the Act. Fears expressed over Government's possession of this information, coupled with the fact that they are reportedly collecting GPS coordinates too makes it a pretty sensitive piece of information to give out. Maybe the only safe place to possibly give such information, if one consents to do so, is at the airport or other points of entry or exit, and/or other places that I learnt Kenyans should be immune to arrest.

Unfortunately, a very important civic process may just have been polluted by inadvertent statements and intent to chew more than can bitten.