STAND UP AND BE COUNTED – UGANDA CENSUS 2014 UNDERWAY
(Posted 29th August 2014)
A ten day long census started yesterday across Uganda to obtain updated population data, conducted by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics. Ugandan citizens, residents but even tourist and business visitors from abroad who are in country at present are due to be counted, the former in their places of residence and the latter in their hotels or lodges, wherever the enumerators catch up with them. This correspondent too was counted on the first day of the exercise, not standing up but sitting down, as was his domestic staff after the local LC 1 Chairman had made arrangements to be among the first in the sub parish to be visited by the team assigned to the area, either a sign of prominence or perhaps just because it is known that frequent travel might otherwise prevent the capture of the relevant household details the census is supposed to obtain.
Questions about the availability of a stand by generator caused laughter, cognizant of the fact how national electricity distributor UMEME delivers, or often not delivers services, as was the question if there was salt and soap in the house, if food crops were grown in the garden and where the water used in the residence came from. Additional questions about the number of rooms in the house, the roofing material used – in this case the classic ‘mabati’ or corrugated iron sheets – the number of phones, mobile and land lines as well as the number of TV and radio sets had to be answered to complete the four A1 sized pages in the book the census staff carried. Of course there were also questions about academic qualifications, the type of work one was doing – there was no provision however for travelling writers so I ended up as a mere academic – the source of household income and the years lived in the country and at the location, a reminder how decades race by.
Tourists in hotels and lodges will be asked a different set of questions but being counted will also help to get added base data helpful for tourism planners and the industry at large. Overall did the exercise get off to a good start, in some places a little late as the materials were still enroute to the enumerators but given that the nationwide census runs until the 06th of September, there is plenty of time for the 80.000+ enumerators UBOS had recruited to complete the full count.
