The Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party has raised concerns on the accuracy of the Uganda National Housing and Census report 2024 with the Census, according to reports, falling short of transparency and accountability in the data collection and reporting process.
While addressing the media during the party’s weekly presser, Walid Mulindwa Lubega, the Deputy Secretary for Publicity at FDC, said that the exercise was marred by different shortcomings as many people were not counted.
“There was a lack of capacity building on the part of enumerators, which significantly impacted the accuracy and reliability of the census data. The enumerators didn’t understand the census data, methodology, questionnaires, and data collection procedures. The enumerators didn’t know how to operate the tabs (computers) where they were supposed to record the information answered, yet there was no manual system of information sharing,” he noted.
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Lubega added that the statistics in the report were unrealistic and manipulated, stating that this could be dangerous as the census data is crucial for informing policy decisions, development planning, and resource allocation in Uganda.
“This is coming at a time when the UBOS pulled down the 2024 Census Report from its website following the public outcry over contradictory Census figures it published on Thursday that wrongly showed the population of the Acholi subregion dropping from 21,31443 to 1941913, while it displayed the Bagisu population as falling from 2390975 to 2096149. Indeed, the Census numbers failed to make sense,” Lubega added.
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Didacus Okoth, the spokesperson for the for the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS), stated in a phone interview that the statistics in the report are correct, saying that a few errors were made, hence the pulldown of the report.
“It was a human error that was noticed and being corrected. The rush for the media to publish false articles could make the population not trust the bureau. I advise the population to wait for the corrected report to be put up,” Okoth stated.
UBOS pulled down the census report 2024 from their website due to the public outcry on different figures that wrongly showed the population of the Acholi subregion dropping from 21,31443 to 1941913, while it displayed the Bagisu population as falling from 2390975 to 2096149.
