BY GERALD GEKARA – 50 believers belonging to the Kabonokia religion were arraigned in court to face charges of refusing to take part in the just-concluded Census 2019.
Appearing before a court in Marimanti, Tharaka-Nithi County, the believers were charged for declining to give information to census officials, lack of national identity cards and others declining to have their fingerprints taken during interrogation by police.
Interestingly, Four of the accused pleaded guilty to the charges and were released on condition that they be listed in the Census excercise.
The remaining 46 were then sentenced to a maximum of 1 year in jail each, for refusing to take part in the Census exercise, lacking government identification documents and instead stood firm on their decision, saying it was a ‘Satanic’ exercise.
The Kabonokia community are known to oppose a raft of essential services such as access to a mobile phone, school education and even broke the news when it was discovered that they chased away polio vaccine agents, saying that health comes from God and therefore they do not take their sick to the hospitals.
