The Census

So this was census week in Kenya, which I have to admit, is pretty exciting for me. As a math and economics nerd, this is about as close to nirvana as you can get, lots of counting, lots of statistics, all in relation to economic decisions/domestic policy. It’s like voting but you only have to participate with your existence. In a lot of ways, it is a privilege to be counted. To be counted is to be known, to exist. Every time the government or some official references Kajiado district, I’ll now be one of the people they talk about. I affect the “literacy rate” “poverty rate”, all these rates that you hear thrown around in politics. Since they were counted, my neighbors might actually get some of the services they deserve from the government, like the teachers that are promised to local schools but have to be paid for by parents. It’s exciting that a set of mundane questions can have so much impact, and rich and poor can participate equally (in theory).
In many countries, avoiding a census is a major political tool. If you don’t count the people, you can cite ignorance when you don’t do what you’re supposed to. “Half the people aren’t educated….that’s news to me, I thought our population was just half as big.” Or, it can be used as a tool to marginalize certain people groups, invisible communities that the government can wish away and oppress because they don’t even exist in the eyes of the world. One thing you hear a lot of sarcasm about in Kenya is the non-existence of IDPs (internally displaced people). As far as I can tell, the government does not recognize any IDPs from the 2007 post-election violence, while the camps where these people who were driven off their land but politically funded thugs live are visible from the road (I literally saw 5 camps just driving to the MCC retreat). I surely hope the census officials made it to the IDP camps….
Anyway, census day (Tuesday) was a national holiday and I wanted to wish you all a happy census day. Even as it is flawed, conducting a census is reason to celebrate. I have been counted. I am now known.