CENSUS ENUMERATORS THREATEN TO STRIKE DUE TO UNPAID ALLOWANCES

By George Bukenya

As the National Census activity set to kick off, enumerators have threatened to strike for Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) failure to meet their training allowances.

One of the enumerators in Kampala who preferred to remain anonymous said that they trained for nine days and UBOS planned to pay each of them UGX 20,000 per day and a lamp Sam was supposed to be paid at the end of the training but they are yet to receive it.

The spokesperson of UBOS when contacted on the matter was unable to respond because she was not picking her known mobile phone number.

The enumeration exercise starts today with the Census night and the enumerators will be moving in hotels, and lodges to enumerate people who will have slept in such facilities.

On Friday 10th ,2024 at exactly 6:00 am, the enumerators will then start moving from one household to another with  enumeration forms to get information from individuals and these will be bearing UBOS identification cards at their chest to avoid masquerades from infiltrating into the exercise with other intentions.

The Minister for Information Technology and National Guidance Dr. Chris Baryomunsi said argued the enumerators to be calm and patient because government payment passes through process which may take some little time.

He advised them to get small loans from friends or relatives in case they need money for feeding after all government will pay them even if it delays a bit they are assured on payment.

He implore the citizens to refrain from misleading propaganda that discourages others from accepting to be enumerated well on grounds that the exercise is aimed at introducing taxes on their properties and other income generating wealth.

“The Census activity has been occurring since time in memorial even during the time of Jesus on earth it used to happen people shouldn’t politicize it, they should embrace it for proper government planning”. Dr. Baryomunsi cautioned.

He also said that every person in Uganda will be enumerated even those whose habitat is on streets, the travelers will be found in buses and on plane and those in hotels and lodges and apartments will be enumerated during the Census Night which is Today 9th May, 2024.

The respondents are expected to answer questions on levels of education attained by members of the household, who are out and those that are still going to school and which schools to they go to.

Enumerators will also count the number of mobile phone handsets and computers in a given household as well as members’ access to internet usage.

A total of 154 question where set by UBOS to be answered by the respondents in a given household, institutions and homeless, hotels and lodges will answer eight while communities will be quizzed on 6, and a selected group 12.

Respondents will be asked on dwellings aspects, food security, and energy sources for lighting and cooking as well as access to water by what source.

Women will also tell how many children they have produced while children will be asked whether they have been vaccination records against killer diseases, age in order to determine the infant mortality rate.

A total of 115,000 Enumerators and 30,000 supervisors have been deployed by UBOS across the country after undergoing a vigorous training that lasted for nine days.

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