Leaders from Mt Kenya are hoping to use the forthcoming national census to help their region get additional resources.
They have launched a campaign to have residents who have migrated to other regions to return so they can be counted in their home counties during the August census.
The leaders are driven by the fact population is a key determinant on how much a county gets in budgetary allocations. That is why they are determined to boost the number of people in the region’s counties.
This comes in the wake of some leaders’ claims that the region had been marginalised in terms of resource allocation and distribution of development projects.
Sources said the leaders want those living in other counties to return home so that the actual number of people in the counties can be captured.
Part of the plan is to cut budgetary allocations of cosmopolitan towns such as Nairobi and Nakuru and other counties where residents of Mt Kenya region have migrated.
The leaders hope about two million people will be cut the seven million-strong Nairobi population which will translate into reduced budgetary allocation to the city county.
There has also been a feeling that billions of shillings allocated to Nairobi over the years have not been use optimally to improve the lives of residents.
Agriculture CS Mwangi Kiunjuri, Laikipia Senator John Kinyua and Laikipia County Assembly Speaker Patrick Waigwa asked residents to take the census seriously because allocation of resources would continue to be determined by population.
The leaders who spoke at Umande said many regions were shortchanged during the 2009 census as their residents were counted elsewhere.