Planning authority chief calls for data laws

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JINJA - National Planning Authority (NPA) executive director Dr Joseph Muvawala has called for the enactment of a data law in the country.

“This country will need a data law, which requires you to give us data whether you like it or not,” Muvawala, who is also Busoga Kingdom premier says.

He wants the law to also compel big companies including multinationals operating in the country to surrender statistics whenever they are needed by the government.

He has, therefore, promised to push this agenda to all concerned to make sure that there is a law adding that if one is asked for information and they refuse, they can be taken on.

Muvawala’s call comes after learning that there are people who have refused to give information in the on-going National Population and Housing Census 2024.

He was speaking to journalists after being enumerated at his residence in Kivubuka village, Jinja Northern division in Jinja City.

The Executive Director National Planning Authority and also Busoga Kingdom's Prime Minister Dr. Joseph Muvawala Nsekere (right) being enumerated by Christine Kayongo (left) a Census Officer in Jinja City at his home in Kivubuka village, Jinja Northern Division. (Photo by Donal Kiirya)

“I have been informed that some hospital administrators are not co-operating, those are our staff and we will take action. I would like to personally warn government officials that it is easier to get to you than to get other people who are in private,” Muvawala said.

Muvawala said: “But if you are a hospital administrator of Iganga for example —

You heard that there was a problem there and you had refused to provide information. As a hospital administrator you should act as quickly as possible to solve that problem and ensure that you provide statistics to the country".

He thanked those who had already participated in the census and assured them that this data is neither political nor tribal but data for national development.

“Some of the questions may appear to be annoying but they are important to us like we would like to know about the disease burden of this country, feeding habits, know your assets and we are not using this for taxation, we are using this for knowing how much you have such that we are able to plan for you,” Muvawala said.

He further explained that there are personal questions, which should not worry people, especially men from Busoga who are concerned about the revealing the number of children they have. For instance, the enumerators are counting children of the women and not the men.

Muvawala said international protocols do not allow the exposure of the data point (source of information), they only capture the data but not the name of the data point. 

According to him, exodus of such information tantamounts to breaking the law and statistical systems all over the world will collapse.  

“And in this census, to me the number of the Basoga does not matter so much, what matters is the quality of the Basoga — so we should be working towards improving our quality instead of thinking that increasing our quantity will improve our quality,” Muvawala said.

Enumeration is on course 

Emmanuel Menhya, the representative of the statistics commissioner in Jinja city, said the census exercise was moving on well and enumerators are in the field doing their work and requested people to avail them with all the necessary information that requires to be enumerated.

Al-Haji Mohammed Baswali Kezala, the deputy Head of Mission at the Uganda Embassy in Doha, said he did not expect to be asked so many questions.

Al-Haji Mohammed Baswali Kezala (left) the deputy Head of Mission at the Uganda Embassy in Doha being enumerated by Rajab Kitto (right) at his home in Jinja City. (Photo by Donald Kiirya)

Kezala, also a former mayor of Jinja, said: “I'm impressed that everything concerning the planning process has been catered for in this census, you will find provisions for technology, health, social life and number of households in the questionnaire".

Kezala added that all of those factors and many others are important in policy formulation and important for the planning of this country.

He appealed to the entire citizenry to take interest, responsibility and co-operation in this census exercise because without data collection and research, the country cannot move forward, cannot plan unless the citizens participate actively and with a lot of enthusiasm in providing the much needed data on most of all the questions that are being raised to them.