Census: ''We did not count them all''

 

The boss for the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) told us that an enumerator is the most important person during the census. But he forgot to add that he is the most poorly paid and despised. But, my sentiments aside, you are about to learn what happened to the most important person in the census.

 

 

Of course, UBOS cannot be blamed for the delays in our remuneration or being paid in halves, it must be the district officials who scavenged on the money that was sent to them to pay us.

 

Almost all the allowances were cut, we were poorly fed during training and even got half-pay. We were only given sh150,000 and told to wait for phone calls to pick the balance.

 

At the beginning of the exercise, we got sh3,000 per day, which was only just enough for transport. I had no money for food.

 

I arrived at a certain home when they were preparing to have lunch. The lady of the house told her daughter: “First hold on. Let this idler do his job and go. We were not paid to offer them lunch,” she said.
 

 

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Census chairman Ben Mungyereza (R) and the census coordinator Francis Mashate (L). PHOTO/Peter Busomoke

 

 

My enumeration area was about 4km from home. Every day, during the 10-day exercise, I walked this distance, come rain or shine. I counted every household, even when people insulted me. I humbly did my work, including calming down some people who demanded payment, before their data could be captured.

 

“Why ask whether I have shoes or sugar? Are you going to buy them for me?” one man asked.

 

Another elderly man told me he could only be counted if the President came around because he had questions to ask him.

 

One woman said I must have been idle to have woken up in the morning and gone to her home only to ask her how many children she had as if I was her husband. We had been told to observe confidentiality, but one man almost kicked me out of his compound when I told him that I needed a private word with his wife.

 

Some people laughed at the questions we asked, instead of giving us answers. We were often called fools and idiots.

 

I almost reminded our tormentors that we were the most important people in the census exercise. In some cases, I skipped certain questions because the host was too critical.
 

 

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That aside, the rain did not spare me. It rained cats and dogs on the third day of the census. The umbrellas UBOS gave us were either meant for kindergarten children or as they say, someone must have ‘eaten some difference’ on them.

 

Mine could only cover my head, so I had to brave the rain in order to protect the questionnaires.

 

 

At the end of the exercise, when we took the questionnaires to the sub-county headquarters, we were told that we were getting half pay.

 

We refused to surrender the questionnaires. My colleagues even cited attempted rape, the difficult terrain and the jobs and marriages they had risked to conduct the census in vain.

 

In the end, we were given two options: either to surrender the questionnaires and get half-pay or keep them and not get anything. We painfully surrendered the books and prayed that whoever was responsible would release our balance fast.
 

 

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If you want the best from someone, give them the best. From the comments I heard from my colleagues, their grievances affected the way they carried out the exercise. Many citizens were not counted because some enumerators avoided hustling.

 

Those who were assigned vast areas did not bother to comb all the corners. For example, if you were given 100 households to count in 10 days, you only picked a few, especially if your supervisor was not around. The supervisors earned more, but many of them did not bother going to the field.

 

They remained at the sub-county headquarters, probably feasting on our money. Other enumerators sabotaged the exercise because they felt cheated.

 

After the first two days, when the determination and excitement had been floored by frustration and fatigue, it was not rare for an enumerator to forge households and their responses.

 

One colleague revealed to me that he created over 20 households because he could not continue moving on an empty stomach. I know many who stopped counting when the first questionnaires got used up. Initially, we were to be given six booklets, but some of us got three and others, four.

 

When these got used up, some enumerators did not ask for more and since the supervisors rarely came to the field, this went unnoticed.

 

On the day of submission of the results, they submitted fewer questionnaires and got the same pay like the committed ones.