The Uganda Beaural of statistics has updated the country on the meaning of census night and urged all citizens to mark all persons who will spend the special night in their house holds, to enable a smooth start of the exercise countrywide.
Speaking at the weekly security presser in Naguru today, the senior public relations officer at Uganda Beaural of statistics Didacus Okoth called upon the citizens to co-operate and support their field teams by ensuring that all households and communities are accurately counted.
“Your information helps in better planning for the future of Uganda that we all desire. Census 2024 it matters to be counted in a sense that we must all be part of the statistical information.” Said Okoth on behalf of the Executive director of UBOS
He additionally disclosed that, the night of 9th May 2024 will be remarkable because it’s going to be the census night, where all questionaires to be asked during the exercise will relate and refer to that special night. “Even if the enumerator came on the 10th day, you are requested to remember who spent that night in your household.” Said UBOS head of public relations.
He added and said, without the above reference night or date, they can’t tell how many people slept in a given household and the exact day, hence setting aside the census night. “census night also helps us to avoid double counting of individuals.” Said Okoth
Its upon the above background that he urged house hold heads to kindly take the responsibility of remembering each and every person that shared the household during the night of 9th May.
He clarified on the National population census holiday, which he said won’t go beyond 10th May 2024.
“why the cabinet gazetted this day as a public holiday, is to enable people to be found in their respective homes so that we are able to have a smooth start of census enumeration. On Saturday since it will be a weekend many will be home, as well Sunday which is a worshipping day but we shall wait for them when they’re back. When Monday comes all people will be required to move back to their work places. During these 3 days we shall hope to have covered much as we can.” He said
He also urged the citizens to beware of masqueraders claiming to be UBOS staff, who might want to utilise the National census day to rob them of their property especially during night hours.
“No one should come to your home at night saying they are UBOS staff carrying out census. Those will be criminals. UBOS staff will have clear identity cards with their names.” Okoth said
According to Okoth, they’ve also set a questionnaire dubbed the “floating questionaire” which is specifically going to handle people who are traveling at the border points, Airport, taxi parks or bus parks. “When they find them there, the question will be that where did you spend your census night of 9th May?. The answer they give that will be their residence regardless of where they are at the moment.” Said UBOS spokesperson
He also said, the Beaural will work in conjunction with the government security agencies who will conduct institutional questionaires forexample the UPDF, Uganda prisons services, High commissions and Refugee settlements which will be handled by office of the prime minister. “all these have undergone training to understand the questionaires expected out of them.” He said
He noted that, their close cooperation with the various government security agencies offers the Beaural peace and security throughout the entire population Census exercise especially to their enumeration field officers as well as government property inform of tablets.
The government of Uganda secured over 120,000 tablets to ensure that a technologically driven censure is Successfully undertaken by the Beaural.“This time round we aren’t going to have the paper questionnaire but rather we shall have all questionaires aploaded and predetermined in the tablets which every enumerator will be expected to be having.” Said Mr. Okoth
Okoth outlined that, the enumerators shall be following the questions and answering them using the various codes as they will be guided by their trainers using the tablets.
He also revealed that the Beaural has already placed a total of over 147 staffs at the districts, who are working as district Census commissioner representatives.
“these are working with clerks, RDC’s, chief administrative officers and district planners to ensure that the exercise is well understood at the district level and appreciated by the citizens even at the grassroot.” He stated
He further, lauded the media fraternity for their involvement in the preparation of the exercise right from the beginning.
“You have been part of us, you have widely communicated population Census right from the preparatory activities which included listing of house holds, mapping of the entire country, piloting of population census in the various districts and cities and now we can say that UBOS is ready.” Okoth narrated
