Forget the population census; here is survey that will really count

Even before the chalk digits that census enumerators imprint outside of households fade, it is emerging that the 2019 census may be tainted with political posturing to an extent the final results may well not serve their purpose.

This unsettling possibility is not far-fetched, considering that in some areas in Northern Kenya, data from the 2009 census was subject to a fierce dispute that needed a courtroom resolution.

Already, some chiefs in lowly populated areas have been arrested for reportedly inflating numbers at the nudging of local politicians.

But why has this important decennial counting exercise become overly politicised and trivialised by our leaders? (An otherwise reserved female politician recently stated that her community "has been busy in the bedroom while other communities were busy in bars", so any inordinate upsurge in numbers from her corner should not surprise anybody).

Granted, the census questions on ethnicity inevitably give politicians information they require to determine their political punching weight, but one can hardly blame Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) for seeking to know our tribal numbers.

That is the essence of a census – to establish numbers, and ethnicities are a key entity in this equation.

However, because politics is about size and the optics of size, politicians will not mind misrepresenting, disputing, dismissing and downplaying or exaggerating data for their selfish gains and at the expense of citizens for whom the data is supposed to improve resource allocation, representation and service delivery.

Since the census numbers for 2019 run the risk of political hijacking, the onus is on the KNBS to think beyond the census, as the only means through which data for bettering of Kenyans’ lives can be collected.

The 2006 Statistics Act mandates KNBS to conduct the census, but also "any other such censuses and surveys as the (KNBS) board may determine". KNBS must take the letter and spirit of this latter provision and run with it. It must experiment with non-conventional surveys that are more holistic, but more importantly, immune to misuse by politicians.

Numbers do not lie, but numbers often fail to tell the whole story. When governments and politicians tag the value of citizens to size and numbers, critical aspects of what makes us humans are missed. This is why latter-day economists eschew obsession with GDP and GDP per capita as measures of economic well-being. Retired UNDP boss Helen Clarke put it so: "Equity, dignity, happiness and sustainability are all fundamental to our lives, but absent in the GDP equation".

Countries are beginning to incorporate these non-numerical, uncountable aspects of life into governance. Happiness as a desired and inalienable right for citizens has had its cheerleaders, including American revolutionaries, who in declaring independence from Britain in 1776, included "the pursuit of happiness" as one cause of the rebellion. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has a Ministry of Happiness charged with "aligning and driving government policy to create social good and satisfaction".

To the skeptics, the UAE Happiness Minister says her job "is no laughing matter". The South Asian Kingdom of Bhutan ditched GDP as a measure of progress and instead adopted Gross National Happiness, which is listed as the government’s goal in the Bhutanese constitution.

The idea of happiness as official policy is yet to catch on in Africa, though. Nigeria’s Imo State governor appointed a Minister of Happiness, but residents were most unhappy about it, protesting about there being "bigger priorities". (It did not help that the happiness minister was the governor’s sister).

In case KNBS honchos feel the 2006 Statistics Act is ambiguous on such surveys, they can find encouragement in the UN General Assembly resolution 65/309 of 2011 that called on member states to "measure the happiness of their people and use the data to help guide public policy". The top countries in the UN’s 2019 World Happiness Report share key common attributes. These are social support; high life expectancy; freedom to make life choices; generosity; and low graft levels. The top 20 countries are a motley, assorted group – there are acutely capitalist states, welfare states and even kingdoms, but key factors such as generosity and social support run across, so a country’s socio-economic and political system is immaterial to citizens’ wellness, up to a point.

In this year’s census, KNBS asked us how many we were in our homes, how much assets we had and how many hours we worked – essentially placing our value in numbers and size. But Kenyans are more than such statistics. We crave joy, freedom, dignity and peace. We have fears, concerns, hopes and dreams. KNBS therefore owes us this one survey question: Are we happy?

Mr Owino is a University of Nairobi master’s student