ERIAS LUKWAGO: Census data is vital for planning Kampala’s population

The Lord Mayor of Kampala capital city Erias Lukwago has revealed why data from the national housing and population census exercise is very vital in planning for people in Kampala and its neighboring areas.

Speaking to the media after being enumerated at his home in Rubaga division, the Lord Mayor highlighted that on several occasions they have found difficulties in doing their work, because of necessary data and information that’s always required.

He said as of today, it’s hard to find someone with authentic data and information about how many people usually come to Kampala, work, and later on go back to their homes or even those that sleep within the central business district.

“The last census we had in 2014, it revealed that Kampala by that time had 1.5 million people. But with that 1.5 million population in Kampala, it was hard to differentiate between those who sleep within the city and those that just come to work and go back,” he said.

According to Lukwago after the last 10 years since Uganda held the census, the central business district has continued to register very many people, something that necessitates knowing how many people are in the city.

The Lord Mayor stipulates that during his travels outside Uganda in different conferences, experts are always interested in knowing Kampala’s population, which to them matters a lot before giving out any aid to the country.

“It is very vital for one to know how they would start to help you as a country If they are indeed interested to do so. Either as a country or KCCA. They will need to know how many people are in Kampala and the moment you start guessing or estimating, you lose out. We therefore need an accurate figure,” he added.

Lukwago however wondered how the statistics body (UBOS) would come out with the authentic figures, highlighting the need to know the clusters of people, based on different jobs they carry out in the city.

He mentioned that they would want to know as leaders for example how many boda boda riders are in the city before planning for them, number of taxi operators, vendors in different markets/streets and also number of street kids.

As leaders of Kampala city, the Lord Mayor said, “Such issues are critical to us when planning. Let’s hope all this information will be gathered.”

On another note Lukwago was disappointed in the late submission of enumerator’s names to UBOS’s portal regarding yesterday’s delays.

He said, “those who spearheaded the delay in submitting enumerators’ names to the authority’s portal, should be punished for costing the authority time that would have been used to carry out a smooth exercise. How can one explain why names of enumerators were submitted on the last day that commenced the exercise? he wondered.

As said by Lukwago, this is a one-off exercise that only happens once after every 10 years. He said it therefore requires thorough preparations and everything to be done in the right time.

As leaders, the Lord Mayor held his point that they are willing to follow up on why some people failed to apply through the authority’s system, in order to be given the opportunity to work as enumerators.

Despite some delays in the system yesterday, the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) clarified to the general public that the enumeration devices, also known as tablets, have not failed to work.

The authority said enumerators who have been assigned responsibilities are executing their assignments without any problem, as the remaining 20,000 enumerators are the ones reporting machine failure.

Uganda Bureau of Statistics further assured the general public that enumeration devices and the Census application are operating well and the enumeration exercise is expected to be smooth going forward until 19th May 2024.