Ubos to count refugees, army, islanders under special areas

The Uganda Bureau of Statistics (Ubos) has said it will count whoever will be in Uganda on the census night.
 
Mr Didacus Okoth, the Ubos senior public relations officer, who was speaking at the weekly press briefing at the Police Headquarters in Nagura, Kampala, said everyone in Uganda, including refugees, will be counted. 
 
He said people in the refugees’ camps, the islands; and the armed forces, which have floating populations, will be gazetted under special areas. This category will also include the Greater Kampala Metropolitan Area that covers Kampala City, Mukono, and Wakiso since they also have many floating populations and a big night economy.
 
“It is our core function and responsibility to ensure that every citizen in this country is counted. If midnight of May 9 finds you within the boundaries of Uganda, then you are a candidate of enumeration and you must be counted. We do not want to leave anybody who will have slept within the boundaries of Uganda on the night of May 9 uncounted,” Mr Okoth said.
 
The 2024 National Population and Housing Census runs from May 10 to 19, with May 9 as the census night, where the Ubos staff will move door-to-door to capture data from residents of households.
 
Mr Okoth said the refugees will be enumerated by themselves with Ubos working closely with the refugee desk in the Office of the Prime Minister and the camp commandants and his team of enumerators. 
 
Uganda hosts about 1.5 million refugees, the largest refugee population in Africa and the sixth largest in the world. Nearly 60 percent of these refugees are from South Sudan and another 30 percent are from DR Congo.
 
Ubos said May 10 will be the census public holiday and the public is encouraged to stay home to facilitate a smooth start of the enumeration exercise.
 
“We call upon all of you to cooperate and support the field teams by ensuring that our households and communities are accurately counted. Your information will contribute to better planning for the future of Uganda we all desire,” Mr Okoth said.
 
He said the census night counting helps to avoid double-counting of people as the forms will include the floating population questionnaire for people travelling, institutional questionnaires for schools, hospitals, universities, household questionnaires, questionnaires for Uganda Police Force, Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF), and the Uganda Prisons Service (UPS).
 
“The enumeration exercise will be done during day time and we would want to caution the public that no one should come knocking at their door claiming to be a census officer at night. They will be wrongdoers and every enumerator and supervisor will be identified clearly with identity cards that will have their name, district and title,” Mr Okoth said.
 
Mr Okoth said they have recruited enough enumerators to carry out the exercise, with more than 120,000 field staff to cover the entire country. 
 
He said they would capture the data of Ugandans living abroad through their relatives who will provide the details of the person or persons using a questionnaire that asks if the household members have any relatives abroad.
 
“The digital technology will enhance the quality of data, the timeliness of the release of the results and by June, Ubos will be able to release preliminary results, provisional by September, and the final results by December,” Mr Okoth said.
 
The national census takes place every 10 years.

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