Census starts today: Ugandans urged to tolerate lengthy, uncomfortable questions

The Government designated the first day of the census a national holiday to enable the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) to reach as many people in their homes.

This year’s census is the first to be conducted digitally, using tablet computers.

Read: What will happen to Ubos' 120,000 tablets after census?

The census, as UBOS has explained over time, is intended to capture a “snapshot” of what is taking place in Uganda on the night of May 9th (yesterday), which was designated as the ‘Census Night.

Questions will be based on who was in the county on that day.

UBOS officials confirmed last night that the census questionnaire will have a long list of questions.

Media reports last week indicated that Ugandans will have to answer up to 180 questions.

“The questions are not few, but it is important that we answer all of them because this is an exercise that happens once in 10 years,” says Stephen Baryahirwa, the Field Operations Officer at UBOS.

It should be noted, however, that household questionnaires will be much longer than institutional questionnaires (for instance people who will be found and counted in schools, and hospitals) or those who will be found at their workstations or on the road.

UBOS also says some questions might feel uncomfortable to some groups of people, but urges the public to be patient and provide accurate information.

For instance, there will be questions asked of children as young as 10 years old, about their sexual reproductive health.

Women will also be asked to disclose all their children including those they might have had outside of the wedlock.

To ensure that they speak freely, enumerators have been asked to speak to such women privately.

Hellen Nviiri, the UBOS Principal Statistician says such information is needed to better planning of the country.

“If we are asking 10 year old if they are sexually active, its is because we need to know where to start in fighting teenage pregnancies. We need to know where these girls are and how many they are,” she said.

The majority of the questions will be answered by the heads of household, but in cases they are not around, it will be anybody found at home that is able to answer the questions.

Resisting the census is an arrestable offence that carries a maximum sentence of 6 months in jail.

But UBOS says people who do not answer questions to questions will be given another chance

“We have a code for when a questionnaire is not complete for a given household and the enumerator can always come back at another date,” said Nviiri.