No public holiday for census - UBOS

Aug 20, 2014

With 8 days left to the national population and housing census,UBOS has clarified that there will be no public holiday.

By Raymond Baguma

With 8 days left to the national population and housing census, the Uganda Bureau of Standards (UBOS) has clarified that there will be no public holiday for the entire duration of the exercise.

The population and housing census kicks off countrywide later this month on August 28, and will last 10 days until September 6 under the theme, “counting for planning and improved service delivery.”

The UBOS executive director Ben Mungyereza told journalists yesterday (Monday) that a public holiday would alter the outcome of the census since people tend to travel to the countryside during holidays.

Mungyereza said, “If there is a public holiday, there is a tendency for people to go to the villages. And if residents of Wakiso or Kampala traveled to their villages, it means that we would have fewer people during enumeration and it would affect the planning for the population in these districts.”

He said that training is ongoing countrywide for the 8,000 recently recruited field enumerators and supervisors. In Kampala, training is ongoing in all wards, while training is also taking place at over 1,400 locations in the respective 111 districts.

“In the training the enumerators go through the questions one by one, word by word and page by page so that everybody understands the questions to be asked,” said Mungyereza.

The questions to be asked cover various aspects some of which include; one’s level of education, name, age, health facilities, occupation, toilet facilities, methods of waste disposal, source for drinking water, whether a family owns livestock, number of deaths, birthday.

“The questionnaire will be filled by the enumerator and they have been trained in interviewing and how to ask questions,” said Mungyereza.

UBOS last conducted a population and housing census in September 2002. There has been a shortage of up-to-date population data, with planners currently relying on estimates. The cesnsu has twice been postponed in the past. Initially, it was to be held in 2012, but was postponed to 2013 due to lack of funds, and later postponed to 2014.

Recently while flagging off the census campaign, President Yoweri Museveni said this year’s census is critical as country formulates the 2nd National Development Plan to provide demographic information for evidence-based planning and decision-making.

No public holidays for August census, says govt