UBOS dispatches census tablets, Ugandans urged to stay home on May 10th.

The state minister for planning Amos Lugoloobi has urged Ugandans to stay home on 10th May 2024, citing that the day was gazetted as a public holiday commencing the enumeration exercises across the country.

According to the minister the day being a public holiday came as a directive from the president Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, upon launching the census on 12th December 2023, so as to allow Ugandans stay at their homes and prepare to be counted.

He said, “So we expect all Ugandans to remain at home on 10th, because that 10th is a public holiday and its when we start counting the people of Uganda.”

The census night of 9th – 10th according to the minister is purposely to make sure that it’s used as a bench mark, for where one was as enumerators interview them during the enumeration exercise.

Saying this, minister Lugoloobi was flagging off the first batch of tablets meant to be used by enumerators to collect data during their field work in different districts.

He noted that the first batch which was dispatched to districts of northern Uganda, comprised of over 3,410 tablets to be used by enumerators.

“We want to thank UBOS and all the local governments, for the effort so far made. The districts where these tablets are going include Gulu district, Gulu city, Apac, Alebtong, Amorata and Otuke,” he said.

Lugoloobi further revealed that after the census exercise, the tablets will be retrieved for other national activities by Electoral Commission, National Identification Registration Authority and other government entities.

He added that government has already procured about 125,000 census tablets, that will be distributed to various districts in the country.

“The procurement of the Census materials has been concluded. The materials to be used include tablets. This time round we are not going to use questionnaires,”

Additionally minister Lugoloobi hailed UBOS for working within the stipulated time, urging the enumerators to use the gadgets responsibly and ensure that the exercise is a success.

Meanwhile Dr. Chris Mukiza the executive director UBOS who also doubles as the census commissioner, highlighted that as the tablets are being distributed, each has one map.

This map is for a particular enumeration area, and this means each enumerator will be given one map for an area they will be covering.

“We have more consignments being prepared for dispatch besides the ones you saw the minister flagging off. Some are for Olango region, we have those for Kigezi, we have some for Karamoja and some for West Nile among others,” he explained.

Dr. Mukiza noted that 71 out of 146 districts and cities have already been concluded and their materials will be soon reaching them.

He said they are working tirelessly to make sure that by the time of enumeration, every district and city has tablets.

The E.D further brought to light the exercise of training enumerators, saying that this is starting on Monday and training materials have also been dispatched.

“The enumeration manual, audios and videos for them to be using until they get the tablets are already in different districts.”

The census tablets have been networked on both Airtel and MTN lines with software that will ensure that results are released on time.

According to UBOS, the census results will be released within two months compared to previous years when the results would be out after several months.