Gatue Town in Tharaka Nithi County, was the scene of a dramatic scene, as National Population and Housing Census enumerators were forcefully chased away by a gang of 7.
The Wednesday incident almost turned fatal, as one of the assailants, suspected to belong to a cult known as Kabonokia, threatened to cut one of the officials to pieces.
Officers from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations were then called in to quell the escalating situation.
"7 people suspected to be members of Kabonokia sect were last night arrested at Gatue, Tharaka Nithi for refusing to give info to an authorised person collecting statistical info," DCI tweeted.
Reports by Daily Nation revealed that the suspected sect members had refused to divulge any information, during the ongoing tally, citing that the whole exercise was the work of the devil.
They allegedly went on to declare that they would be counted in heaven, before they turned rowdy, forcing the enumerators to tuck tails and flee.
In an eerily similar incident, a couple from Gatamaiyu Village, Naivasha, was arrested after they kicked out census officers and locked themselves in their house.
Chanting in a what was heard to be a fusion of Kikuyu and Hebrew, they went on to disclose that the only count they'd accept, would come on judgement day.
“The book of 2 Chronicles 2:17 bars us from been counted and we shall not defy God's name so as to please the government or members of the public,” the husband, identified as Akhi Shilton, shouted out.
There have been numerous cases of enumerators encountering bizarre and at times life-threatening scenarios, ever since the exercise kicked off last Saturday.
