Christian leaders can now predict the religious inclination of the Kenyan population, after the 2019 Population results were released by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics.
According to the report, Protestants lead with 15,777,473 Kenyans in the religion. It was followed by 9,726,169 Catholics. The report notes that 9,648,690 are going to Evangelical churches. African Instituted Churches consisted of 3,292,573, Orthodox (201,263), Other Christian (1,732,911), Islam (5,152,194), Hindu (60,287 ), Traditionists (318,727).
Other Religions ( 467,083) Don’t Know (73,253), Not Stated (6,909).
The population has grown to 47.6 million in 2019 from 37.7 million in 2009.
Interestingly,755,750 Kenyans registered themselves as being atheists. Kilifi has the highest number of atheists with the number put at 146,669 followed by Nakuru (67,640).In the Census results, Kilifi was followed by Nairobi at 54,841, Narok (45,617), Kiambu (30770), Kitui (23,778), Meru (20,985) and Mombasa at 11,148 atheists.
The statistic in Kilifi is ironical given that the area is the first place in Kenya where missionaries first established a Christian mission in a place called Rabai. Johann Ludwig Krapf came to Rabai in 1844 with his pregnant wife Rosine, whom he had married in Egypt.
In 1846 Krapf together with Johannes Rebmann set up a mission at Rabai. Dr Krapf learnt the local languages and translated the Bible into Swahili.