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KAMPALA - All enumerators in the 2024 national census are to undergo an oath of secrecy.

This will be done as an extra measure to deter leakage of confidential information about respondents during the census.

Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) executive director Dr Chris Mukiza says all enumerators will swear an oath of secrecy before a magistrate.

According to him, anyone who goes against the oath to leak information will be prosecuted and could face up to two years in jail.

He said the Uganda Bureau of Statistics Act compels him or any bureau staff not to publish any confidential information.

"Confidential information is defined as personal information. Any information on persons on either an individual or business will never be released or published to anybody, including to His Excellence the President," he said, "I can only be compelled by a court of law to give any personal information."

According to him, all census information will be encrypted making it difficult for anybody to decipher personal information.

"We have also ensured that we don't even get cyber attacks on the way (during transmission of census results)," he said, adding all information given by respondents will be safe.

The information, Mukiza says, will not be shared with the tax authority to become a basis for assessing taxes on some individuals: "That is not the basis of census or any statistics we do" and that besides that they publish statistics in aggregate form. For example, one can never know the religion of an individual but a group.

He made the revelation during a consultation meeting between over 500 religious leaders and the Uganda Bureau of Statistics about the upcoming national census, which is set to start on May 9.

Uganda conducted the first census in 1948 and since then the population has been growing, and estimates revealed last December by UBOS put Uganda's population at 46 million.

The census exercise is therefore geared at giving the country accurate data to help inform help in planning and other requirements.