Roadblocks are back ahead of census
Mr Chris Mukiza, the executive director of Uganda Bureau of Statistics (left), and Mr Amos Lugoloobi, the minister of State for Planning, display a reflector jacket that the enumerators will wear during the census exercise, at a media briefing in Kampala on May 8, 2024. PHOTO | SYLIVIA KATUSHABE
What you need to know:
- Ubos executive director says they have worked out an arrangement with security agencies to return roadblocks where individuals in transit will be counted and issued a card to eliminate the possibility of double-counting.
The Uganda Bureau of Statistics (Ubos) has announced that it will, with support of security agencies, establish roadblocks on highways from midnight tonight for mandatory counting of people in transit.
During the press briefing yesterday in Kampala, Dr Chris Mukiza, the executive director, said the checkpoints to be mounted on major roads across the country, target the “floating population” such as street children, bus and truck drivers and passengers and those “who stay in trenches”.
The revelation comes hours before the 2024 National Housing and Population Census gets underway tonight.
“We are going to count them at night,” Dr Mukiza said, “We are going to stage roadblocks tomorrow night [tonight] on the main roads exiting cities and towns so that we count them (those in transit).”
The deployment of sentries on highways is a matter of political and security sensitivity. In October 2022, President Museveni issued orders for the removal of roadblocks, citing inconvenience to the public. He said state operatives should employ intelligence-led operations to apprehend suspected outlaws, likening the approach to extracting a pin from a haystack.
Existing checkpoints on major routes, primarily target traffic violators, individuals of interest to tax authorities, and those involved in transporting animals.
The government returned roadblocks manned by the army and police at the height of Covid-19 pandemic to enforce compliance with lockdown rules.
Mr Mukiza, however, yesterday said the sentries are returning and individuals counted at checkpoints will be issued cards, which they can show enumerators so that they are not recounted.
Several questions, however, remain unanswered, including concerns about disruption of traffic, the risk of travellers held up for census at roadblocks, missing flights or appointments and likely delay in delivering medical emergency cases to hospitals.
Nonetheless, Dr Mukiza tasked Ugandans and foreigners in the country, including refugees, to cooperate with and volunteer factual information to enumerators.
Those that oppose or sabotage the exercise, or render false information, would be candidates for prosecution, he said, although the statistics entity would rather it did not have to invoke the law to enforce compliance.
Ugandans, who resist or sabotage the National Housing and Population Census, face up to six months in jail, or Shs600,000 fine, officials warned.
Section 29(3) of the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) Act, 1998, provides that any person who hinders an authorised officer, in this case enumerators and other UBOS officials, from performing lawful duties, refuses to provide required information or makes false declarations commit an offence.
If convicted, the penalties under the Act are imprisonment of up to six months or a fine not exceeding 30 currency points (Shs600,000), or both.
The State Minister for Planning, Mr Amos Lugoloobi, yesterday said they expect to find family heads at their homes.
The start of census exercise, tomorrow, has been declared a public holiday.
Where the family heads are not home, the minister said they should leave a telephone contact with family members at home on which enumerators can reach them to make an appointment for census.
Police and army spokespersons were not readily available to provide information on the number of personnel they are deploying to secure the exercise.
During last month’s pilot phase of the enumeration, some households reportedly chased or released dogs on enumerators and accompanying Local Council officials. This enumeration process is scheduled to run from tomorrow until May 19.
A source briefed on the arrangements last evening said police had detailed its officers to secure the census in their respective areas of responsibility.
Preparation
Ubos has enlisted 435 police officers and about 500 soldiers as enumerators to count colleagues and members of their families in the barracks.
Mr Frank Baine, the spokesperson of Uganda Prisons Service, told this newspaper last evening that 397 prison warders will conduct census at the 269 prisons and barracks in the country.
Overall, the statistics body has dispatched 119,000 enumerators to move from door-to-door to count Ugandans and foreigners, who would have spent tonight, designated as Census Night, in the country.
At yesterday’s press conference, Dr Mukiza disclosed that they had received the Shs334b budgeted for the census and that they are set for the exercise.
Ubos has 120,000 tablets to be used by the 119,000 enumerators and 18,483 parish supervisors across the country.
The census night
The Census Night is the night preceding the day actual counting begins.
It is a reference date in more ways than one, officials say. Where an individual spends tonight will be used by enumerators as the place where they live, unless at a work station, while a person who dies in Uganda tonight will still be counted, according to Ubos, because they would have spent the Census Night here.
However, citizens who will be outside the country tonight will not be enumerated even if they return tomorrow or any of the 10 days the census will be ongoing.
Similarly, children born tomorrow or within the census period will also not be counted since they would not have been on Uganda’s territory by Census Night.
