Nairobi News

News

Sect members arrested for refusing to be enumerated in ‘satanic’ census exercise

By Amina Wako August 29th, 2019 1 min read

Seven people believed to members of a sect in Tharaka Nithi County are being held in police custody for refusing to give information to enumerators in the ongoing census process.

According to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), the seven were arrested on Wednesday night after they snubbed the exercise, claiming that it is ‘satanic’ and that they will only be counted in heaven.

“Seven people suspected to be members of Kabonokia Sect were last night arrested at Gatue, #TharakaNithi for refusing to give info to authorised persons collecting statistical information. The members refused to be enumerated claiming the process is satanic and that they’ll be counted in heaven,” DCI tweeted.

According to a police source, the Kabonokia sect had early threatened enumerators during the pre-listing but only agreed to be counted after they were warned by the authorities.

Since the start of the census exercise on the night of August 24, 2019, many incidents of people refusing to give information to the enumerators have been reported.

FALSE INFORMATION

On Sunday, a woman was arrested in Juja, Kiambu County, for obstructing census officials and giving false information.

Nelly Kinja, according to the police, pretended to be the landlady of her residence.

She also told the enumerators, who were accompanied by an area elder, that she would not be enumerated as the government has overburdened her through payments of land rates.

She later claimed that she had been enumerated on Saturday, which turned out to be a lie.