CENSUS FIGURES: UBOS Apologizes Over Bagisu, Acholi Numbers

Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) has issued an apology over confusing numbers from its 2024 census report. As it also made an attempt at sanitizing census figures, UBOS invited the media to clean up what looks like a mess.

When it released the final results from the 2024 census, figures shared in the main document indicated that the Bagisu and Acholi tribes had had their populations reduce by hundreds of thousands of people in a period of 10 years.

This was a red flag that made some Ugandans start wondering if the census figures were cooked – especially given how some keep claiming that they were not counted and the usual troubles with paying enumerators despite hundreds of billions being spent on the exercise.

UBOS was forced to delete the so-called main report for the 2024 census because of the figures that indicated a reduction in the population of the Bagisu and Acholi tribes.

Dr Fred Vincent Ssenono, the principal statistician and acting Deputy Executive Director at UBOS, has apologized over the controversial figures, calling it “a human error.”

Dr Ssenono claimed that UBOS did not have any ill intentions against the Acholi and Bagisu. “We captured all tribes and have all their details. There was no intention to discredit other tribes, but there was only a swap or mismatch of data where right data was put on a wrong tribe,” he said at the media breakfast meeting at the Kampala Serena Hotel.

“There was a human error that was swapped during the printing and preparation of the statistics  related to tribes and as a bureau we apologize for this hiccup. There is no intention by the bureau to discredit any tribe and this is the reason we have rectified the data.”

He added that the Uganda Bureau of statistics maintained “an open door policy which aims at transparency of its activities including disclosure on national statistics,” and encouraged Ugandans “to always seek clarification from us on any data that is shared.”

Even President Yoweri Museveni was shocked by the numbers, which he clearly said were below his expectations, as The Pearl Times has reported Here.

You can see the biggest tribes in Uganda in 2024, Uganda’s most popular religions as well as Uganda’s most educated tribes Here, There and Over There.

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