National Census: enumerators lack maps
Aug 28, 2014
The population and housing census kicked off today with enumerators saying that they faced challenges of inadequate resources such as area maps.
By Vision Reporters
The population and housing census kicked off today with enumerators saying that they faced challenges of inadequate resources such as area maps.
Pius Serubiri, an enumerator attached to zone 5 G, Lubaga in Nakulabye, Kampala, started the process at 11:30am because his area was not specified on the maps distributed by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS). He also told the New Vision that the institutional questionnaires with which he was supposed to begin his exercise today were not availed to him in time, and that partly led to his delay.
However, alternative measures have been devised to tackle some of the problems like insufficient maps. According to Doreen Bogere, a supervisor in Lubaga, each enumerator ideally should have an individual map but as a result of the insufficiency, the enumerators are sharing maps and the Local Council (LC) chairpersons are also helping them to delineated areas that were not reflected on the original map.
Sam Kallu, the assistant also said that nearly half of the originally recruited enumerators turned up for the exercise. He said that out of the 968 who trained to work in Lubaga, only 420 turned up for work this morning.
The census exercise in Lubaga started at 11:30 pm last night with the counting of the homeless and floating populations i.e. the homeless people on the street and those in transit to different areas in the country.
The census enumeration exercise is to run for 10 days until September 6 (next week) under the theme, “counting for planning and improved service delivery.”
Security agencies including police are on a high alert and deployed in enumeration areas in order to deal with groups that could sabotage the enumeration.
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A census enumerator writes down the responses from one of the families in Kikuubo Zone in Mpererwe, Kawempe Division on 28th August 2014. PHOTO/ Maria Wamala
The police spokesperson Fred Enanga said, “We are looking at potential detractors such as some religious organizations that indoctrinate their followers and distort the benefits of the census through their messages. We expect to make a recap at the end of the day to find how the exercise is progressing.”
(Contributors: Joanita Tushabe, Grace Amme, Cecilia Okoth, Carol Kasujja, Raymond Baguma, Abbey Ramadhan)
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