BY DK SEBUNYA: The Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) has revealed that the Uganda national census exercise has so far reached out to 6.2 million households since it kicked off six days ago. The ten-day exercise officially started on the night of 9th/10th May 2024.
Estimates from UBOS indicate that Uganda has over 10 million households, and the exercise was set to cover at least 10 percent every day. However, the first day of the country’s inaugural digital census was disrupted by enumerators’ protests over delayed allowance payment, the absence of some villages on the enumeration tablet systems, as well as failure to log into the system by some enumerators.
“On the issue of training allowances, which was one of the biggest issues in the beginning, payment for 63 has been effected for districts who shared the names of their enumerators and have been uploaded on the recruitment portal. They have received their payments on their mobile numbers,” says Amos Lugoloobi, the minister for planning, while giving an update on the exercise’s progress.
According to the minister, all questions have been translated into 21 languages to ease communication, and all of them must be asked and responded to. He adds that up to two enumerators have lost their lives during the exercise, one in Wakiso district and the other in Namayingo.
Chris Mukiza, the UBOS Executive Director, mentioned that the census process is going as planned unless something comes up in the last days. He adds that the argument of self-enumeration, which was being called for by sections of society, is currently not suitable for Uganda because of the low internet penetration and the lack of self-addressing systems like in developed countries. “Above all, we need to instill that culture of volunteering information; in other countries, they don’t arrest people. Here, people are saying don’t be counted, so tell me the response rate you would get,” he stated.
According to Mukiza, despite the challenges at the beginning, the enumerators have caught up with the pace, working on up to 1.3 million households every day, which is more than the projected daily average. He adds that from the beginning, the average daily performance across the country was 14 households per enumerator, except in the areas which had challenges, especially the Kampala Metropolitan area, but they have also caught up.
The executive director says the death of the two enumerators affected the exercise because enumerators started fearing. Now they are moving as a group to protect each other, enumerate one area, and then move on; this slows down the speed.
About the enumeration in disputed areas like Apaa, Mukiza revealed that the enumerators have been given UPDF to guard them during the exercise, and the process is going on very well. He adds that however, there are some districts which performed below average, and the cause is yet to be established.
“There are some districts that have performed below our expectations, and I want to name them such that the leaders and census officials pull up their socks. The worst performing are Mityana, Kassanda, and Mubende; those ones are below 50 percent. The others are Sembabule in West Nile, Terego and Obongi, then Kaabong, Napak, and Abim from Karamoja. From Lango, it is Oyam, and in Acholi, we have Nwoya. But the rest are on track,” he stated.