Kenya’s population has risen by 10 million to 38,610,097 up from 28.7 million in 1999, this is according to the 2009 census released Tueday by planning minister Wycliffe Oparanya.

According to the census, 19,192,458 are male while 19,417,639 are female.

Releasing the results the planning minister said that a repeat census has been ordered in eight districts due to inconsistencies in the population data for areas in Lagdera, Wajir East, Mandera Central, Mandera East, Mandera West, Turkana Central, Turkana North, and Turkana South districts. The inconsistencies arose from differing rates as population increase was noted to be higher higher than what birth and death rates would support, and age and sex profiles deviating from normal.

The census which was released exactly a year after the count was phased in different categories which included; administrative units, political units, age, gender and by cultural and socio-economic clusters.

Tribes Included

Unlike previous this years census results revealed that the top ethnic communities by numbers are Kikuyu at 6.6 million, Luhya 5.3 million, the Kalenjin at 5 million, and Luo 4 million, Kamba (3.9 million), Kenyan Somali (2.3 million), Kisii (2.2million), and Mijikenda at 1.9 million.

Religion

The results also revealed that Protestants churches has the most followers, with 18.3 million members with the catholic faithful coming second with 9,010,684 followers while other Christian churches account for 4,559,584 followers and the Muslim population in the country stands at 4,304,798 while that of Hindus is 53,393. Oparanya said that the inclusion of tribe and religious groups in the census should be taken positively as it assists in general national development plans adding that the population growth would be captured at intervals of five years.

Counties

The population data which comes after the promulgation of the new constitution showed the population by 47 counties created in the new law. According to the results Nairobi leads with as the most populous county with 3.1 Millin people, followed by Kakamega, Bungoma, Kiambu, Nakuru and Meru.

Provincial results

The results also revealed that Rift Valley province leads with 10.1 million followed by Eastern (5.6 million) Nyanza (5.4 million) Central (4.4 million) and Western (4.3 million), Coast Province has 3.3 million people, Nairobi (3.1 million) with North Eastern having the least number of people at 2.3 million.