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Church of Uganda archbishop Dr Kaziimba Mugalu has urged churches to take part in the mobilisation of Ugandans for the upcoming national census.

"I urge our leaders to join in so that every weekend people are helped to know what they should know. Census is important. Our people need to know and be there to be counted for your spiritual life and also your physical life," he said on Thursday, April 18, 2024.

He was speaking at the Sheraton Kampala Hotel as over 500 religious met with the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) about the upcoming census.

Census 2024 prayer breakfast meeting. (Credit: Mpalanyi Sentongo)

Organised under the Inter-Religious Council of Uganda, the religious leaders met to see how they could help in disseminating information about the census.

Archbishop Dr Kaziimba Mugalu at the census 2024 prayer breakfast.(Credit: Mpalanyi Sentongo)

Kaziimba highlighted that census is a Godly aspect, noting that Biblically in the book of Exodus, God told Moses to gather Israelites to be counted.

"Even before Jesus was born the Government of the time during King Ceaser passed a law to have people counted," he said.

He called on Ugandans to embrace the exercise, saying it is vital for proper government planning to take place by getting information on the state of access to social services such as hospitals, and water.

He said the involvement of the leaders will help dispel misinformation among the public.

"I urge all religious leaders to use the information you have obtained today every Friday (in mosques) on Saturday (for Seventh Day worshipers) and on Sunday to help our people to know the importance of the census."

The archbishop said they have consulted with UBOS and noted that among the questions in the census questionnaire to be used in May is a question on people's tribes and their religion.

Church of Uganda archbishop Dr Kaziimba Mugalu with other officials at the census 2024 prayer breakfast. (Credit: Mpalanyi Sentongo)

He said those things are vital and that one only has to mention their religion and enumerators will find an appropriate of capturing it for the statistics about religion.

The census is set to start on May 10.

UBOS executive director Dr Chris Mukiza said they have started training trainers of enumerators.

"These (trainers) will then go on to train other field staff, " he said, adding that this process of training enumerators will start on April 29 to May 7.

"We have estimated that the remaining time (two days) will be enough time to acclimatise them to their duty station, " he said, adding that they are sparing no time to engage every group to ensure that the country is prepared for the census exercise.

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.