Kampala, (UG):- The Uganda Bureau of Statistics (Ubos) has warned Ugandans against refusing to voluntarily offer themselves for counting in the 2024 National Housing and Population Census saying those who refuse or dodge the exercise face tough punishments including six months in jail.
According to the officials, these punishments are prescribed for persons convicted for breaching provisions of Section 29(3) of the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (Ubos) Act, 1998 which states that “any person who hinders an authorised officer, in this case enumerators and other Ubos officials, from performing lawful duties, refuses to furnish required information or makes false declarations commit an offence.”
If convicted, the penalties under the Act are imprisonment of up to six months a fine not exceeding thirty currency points (Shs600,000), or both.
“Ugandans who resist or sabotage the National Housing and Population Census due to start this Friday face up to six months in jail or a Shs600,000 fine,” Mr James Muwonge, the director of methodology and statistical coordination at Ubos, said.
“We shall use peace, but if we come to your home the first time and you refuse, the second time you still refuse, the third time you still refuse, you can be taken to the police, then court,” he added.
Religious cult, a danger to census
Mr Muwonge who was addressing the press at Uganda Police Force’s weekly press conference in Kampala dissuaded Ugandans from resisting the exercise due to religious and cultural beliefs or other misconceptions.
“For example, some people claim they may die after being counted, which is [false]. So, the law provides that you can coerce somebody, but we don’t want to go to that level because our business is to collect information,” he said, “So, we want to make sure that we use the available channels and structures and systems to make sure that we get the responses.”
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Monitor last week reported that a group of believers under Enjiri Cult group, which draws its members from mainly Luweero, Nakaseke, Kayunga and Nakasongola districts, vowed not to participate in the census on the pretext that the government had a hidden motive in counting citizens.
The local newspaper reported that some of the believers claimed that enumeration is “satanic” and that those counted would die, something Ubos dismissed at yesterday’s media briefing at Police headquarters in Naguru, a Kampala suburb.
The news of the intended defiance prompted leaders in affected districts, led by respective resident district commissioners, to scramble to engage the cult members. We were unable by press time last evening to establish if they made a headway.
Ubos officials separately said in Kampala that they were due to visit the four districts to speak to the groups “still adamant” about the exercise, in what is not the first time that individuals, citing religious beliefs, obstinately resist enumeration.
During Uganda’s last National Population and Housing Census in 2014, which cost Shs200 billion, law enforcement in the eastern Bulambuli District took into custody eighteen members of Triple 666, a cult that prohibited its members from participating in activities deemed “earthly”, including vaccination of children.
More such suspects – identified then as members of Ngulhumbuya religious sect – were detained in Mpondwe-Lhubiriha town in the western Kasese District on allegations of declining to be counted.
It should be remembered that government declared this Friday as a public holiday in honour of the first day of the enumeration, and to allow employed Ugandans to stay home and participate in the exercise.
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Special Category
Mr Muwonge further explained that slum dwellers, employees working night shift and the homeless will be among the first to be counted. “We have arrangements with Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) to see that we reach out to all these groups of people … and enumerate [them] on the first day of census,” he said.
The statistics agency has designated May 9, which is this Thursday, as the Census Night the reference night before the day that the actual counting begins.
This means both Ugandans and foreigners, among them refugees, on the country’s territory by Thursday night will be counted. Mr Muwonge identified these to include persons who die by the Census Night since it would be presumed that they present at the clocking of the census period.
“Those that will die on May 9, which is the Census Night, will be counted. They will be counted because they would have spent the Census Night in Uganda,” he added.
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Conversely, Ugandans who will be out of the country by the index date will not be counted, even if they return within the 10 days when enumeration will be ongoing, according to Ubos. Uganda, like most countries, conducts a National Housing and Population Census every decade in order to ascertain the number of its citizens.
President Museveni in a recorded promotional video said the upcoming enumeration will help the government allocate resources and plan for corresponding levels of health, education and transport services.
“As we work towards realising Uganda’s Vision 2040, it is important that we plan based on accurate information about our people and our resources,” he said, “The information from the National Housing and Population Census will support the government, private sector, cultural and religious, civil society and development partners in service delivery.”
The President exhorted Ugandans to cooperate with the enumerators and provide honest answers to enable them to “process the most accurate information about you, your household, institutions and community”.
“I, therefore, call upon all political, cultural and religious leaders, private sector players, civil society, the media and the institutions of government to support this key national programme,” he said, adding that a successful execution will accelerate Uganda’s socio-economic transformation.
How the Census will be conducted
According to the March 2024 National Housing and Population Census (NHPC) Enumerators’ Manual of Instructions and Computer-Assisted Personal Interviews (CAPI) User Guide, the guiding document for the enumeration, interviewees will, among other things, be required to provide biographical, economic and social information that speaks to their welfare.
For instance, households will be asked about economic activities members are involved in, how much they earn and save, how much land and other resources they possess, and access to the government’s poverty alleviation programmes such as Parish Development Model.
Respondents will speak to their literacy rates by answering questions on levels of education attained by members of the household, who of them is out and school-going and where they study.
Enumerators will also count the number of mobile phone handsets and computers in a household, if any, and members’ access to Internet that should help determine mobile phone and Internet penetration in the country.
The census exercise will enable the government ascertain how far social services are from citizens, the means of transportation to the facilities and the quality of services offered.
There are more than a dozen questions on life and death, the latter likely to be emotional as enumerators will seek information on whether a household has lost a member in the year to May 9, their particulars, and the circumstances of the death.
Ubos officials are to collect similar data on births, although the agency told this publication last week that babies born on May 10 and onwards, even if within the census period, will not be counted because they would not have been present by the May 9 Census Night.
These questions including on the number of children per woman, officials said, are intended to determine the fertility rates and life expectancy, the latter currently being 63 years.
The statistics body’s Board chairman, Mr Albert Byamugisha said the government had provided up to 98 per cent of the Shs320 billion, a reversal of the pattern where donors mostly bankrolled past censuses.
“We are very ready for the census exercise, the enumerators are being trained and by [tomorrow], the training will be done. Enumerators are already practising how to use the tablets from sample households in their sub counties by entering in data and their supervisors correcting any errors so that they can perfect and … [make the] exercise a success,” he said.
Enumerators, he noted, will be accompanied to households by Local Council I officials who know residents and are known to them.
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