“Yes, of course, I’m saying the main errors were on Acholi, Bugisu, and Bakiga, these three tribes. Just instead of here, you put here, which we have since corrected”.
Quoted above is a statement from the Minister of State for Finance Henry Musasizi while responding to questions from Western Uganda Journalists in Mbarara City.
Musasizi says it was just a transposition which they have corrected.
“We have now the right numbers which we can use for decision making”.
Musasizi went ahead to apologize for the anomaly urging Ugandans to accept the newly corrected census figures which he described as correct.
“And I have said I am sorry for that error. Do you believe in what we found out? So, which one do we take? Do we take what you believe or we take what we found out?” asked Musasizi.
He went ahead to emphasize the Ministry’s Capacity to ascertain correct numbers.
“Therefore, I want to appeal to Ugandans to respect expert opinion. We have experts in statistics who advise us on these things. So, if you want to make a decision, take the 45.9 Million. That is the reliable figure”, Insisted the Minister.
This explanation comes in the wake of ongoing controversy regarding census figures whose contradictions have continued to attract more alarms than whispers from Ugandans.
The anomaly in the figures of the Bagisu from Elgon Subregion, Bakiga from Kigezi, the Acholi and Langi from Northern Uganda have been some of the Public concerns.
The Minister says the figures were available but just misplaced.
“Don’t take your thinking. Yes. Do you know what we call transposition? Instead of putting a figure, let’s say for Bakiga, the figure was overstated by about 500,000”, says the Minister who goes on to state that:
“Then instead of Bugisu, the figure of Bagisu was given to Acholis, and Acholis was given to Bagisu. That’s all. But not to say that the number of people counted in Bugisu was not available”.
This however he says is a learning experience to avoid similar contradictions from occurring while conducting census in future.
“Now in the future, now that we have known that the risk of these figures being misplaced, being put where they don’t belong, in the future we shall be more thorough than we were, and this error will not occur again”, concludes the Minister.
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