Credit: Monitor.
Census enumerators and their supervisors on Friday encountered different challenges ranging from the language barrier, defective tablets, people’s resistance to being counted and lack of Internet data packages, among others.
For example, in Kabale district, a 35-year-old passenger on board a Kampala-bound bus was arrested for allegedly refusing to be registered and inciting others to avoid exercise.
Kabale District Police Commander Joseph Bakaleke identified the accused as Jude Twebaze, a resident of Muyumbu Parish in Kyanamira Sub-County.
that the accused was arrested a few minutes after midnight on a Kabale-Kampala bound bus while loading passengers in Kabale town.
“He was arrested a few minutes after midnight after he refused to be counted before he began inciting other passengers to refuse to be counted. We will release him from the police cells because he has proven to be repentant. We will not hesitate to arrest anyone else who attempts to derail the census programme,” Bakaleke said.
At the Malaba border, the census exercise started a little late due to delay in the delivery of materials such as travel bags, aprons, t-shirts and weather protection equipment such as umbrellas and wellies, according to the municipal secretary, Mr Isaac Omella Aseu.
“We were at the border exactly at midnight as required, but the enumerators had not been provided with materials to assist them during the exercise. Despite the difficulties, we managed to start the exercise, but again got stuck after several tablets developed malfunctions,” he said. . saying.
Mr Sharon Anyango, an enumerator from Malaba, said: “I faced the challenge of language barrier, mainly from long distance drivers, most of them spoke Somali, Lingala and Kiswahili. “I approached a truck driver but was forced to leave him because he couldn’t speak Lingala.”
In Ntungamo district, most enumerators also started the exercise without travel bags, aprons, T-shirts, among others.
“We have an identity challenge, many of our surveyors and supervisors have not received brand materials and people do not trust them. We had an incident when the bus took an enumerator while she was trying to enumerate the passengers, she had no identification,” UBOS Ntungamo representative Chris Muheirwe said on Friday morning.
Several pollsters say they were affected by a slow network and system failures when entering data due to mapping issues.
In Mbarara City and Mbarara District, the enumeration exercise has been delayed in some areas due to some glitches including faulty devices and network access.
Marvin Mugema, one of the enumerators in Mbarara town, said he tried to log into the system but failed.
“We tried to log in but failed. They have told us to go to the headquarters to solve the problem and we are still waiting. They haven’t even given us data and we are using our own. Some of the pollsters have not even been assigned where to work. We are not sure if the exercise will start today,” she said at 10am.
In Serere district, a section of enumerators are facing the problem of poor network, preventing them from logging in and starting the census exercise.
Charles Otim, a surveyor assigned to Igola village in Kakus parish, said: “We have not been able to log in since morning, we have had to call the IT officer for technical help.”
District Census IT Officer Silas Emunyu told this publication that the issues arose after some enumerators swapped the login codes they used during the application process.
“I intervened and discovered that some had simply forgotten the numbers they had been given. But we are fixing that,” Mr Emunyu explained.
In the city of Gulu, registration officials on Thursday prepared for the cold night and risked visiting criminal hideouts so that street children would be counted as part of the floating population in the ongoing census.
Gulu city reportedly has hundreds of street children scattered in their hideouts in the slums.
“These people do not want to see weapons, police, soldiers and government vehicles, they flee immediately. “We decided to use plainclothes security personnel to ensure that they are contacted and counted like any other Ugandan,” said Gulu City Mayor Alfred Okwonga.
In Entebbe Municipality, the exercise was temporarily suspended in the Katabi area after computer tablets used by enumerators did not work, forcing supervisors to remove them and transport them to the Katabi Town Council office. The early morning downpour also affected the start of the exercise.
In Kamikaze Sub-County, Luweero District, about half of the enumeration areas were yet to start the exercise by midday. Enumerators were left stranded with computer tablets after a failed activation process. This forced many residents who had stayed at home waiting for enumerators to come to their yards.
In the island district of Kalangala, the exercise had not started at noon due to rain. With more than 200 enumerators, some of them had reached their enumeration areas on Thursday night and others are still stuck in their homes, landing places and Kalangala district headquarters.
Surveyors who were assigned to work on islands in Bubeke, Bufumira and Mazinga sub-counties were still stuck at the Mweena landing site at 11:00 am, waiting for the strong waves currently battering Lake Victoria to recede and sail away.
In some parts of Wakiso district, there was no mobilization of residents and some residents refused to share their data with enumerators, prompting the police to intervene. Wakiso District Chief Administrative Officer Alfred Malinga led a team to search high-ranking government officials remaining in the district. However, they have been rejected by security personnel at some residences.
Compiled by Joseph Omollo, Robert Muhereza, Perez Rumanzi, Rajab Mukombozi, Jovita Kyarisiima, Coslin Nakayiira, Julius Byamukama, Yesimon Peter Emwamu, Emmy Daniel Ojara, Regan Ocaya, Al –Mahdi Ssenkabirwa, Noeline Nabukenya, Richard Kyanjo, David Sekayinga and Dan Wandera