Archbishop Kaziimba Launches ‘Census Song’, Urges Religious Leaders to Preach Census Gospel

The Archbishop Church of Uganda, Dr Steven Kaziimba Mugalu, has launched a new “census song” by the Inter-Religious Council of Uganda as a way of championing the National Housing and Population Census 2024.

The song was performed on Thursday at the Sheraton Hotel in Kampala by school children during the National Population and Housing Census 2024 Prayer Breakfast Meeting held at Sheraton Hotel Kampala.

“I think we should make this song the official census song,” said Kaziimba, a proposal that was met with thunderous approval from the congregation.

Kaziimba, thus, launched the song which will be used during the census exercise for mobilization purposes.

The song rallies local leaders to champion the census and encourages Ugandans to be available and stay home during the census exercise for easy enumeration which starts on May 10, 2024.

Census gospel

In his remarks, Kaziimba said the prayer breakfast shows the government’s recognition of the importance of religious leaders and urged UBOS to keep engaging religious leaders because they are FAT (Faithful Available Teachable) people.

“I would like to take this opportunity to call upon all believers to accurately report their religious affiliation, which data when presented, will show the importance of religious diversity in our country,” he said.

Dunstan Balaba, the Permanent Secretary for the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), said in the pursuit of sustainable development, religious leaders cannot afford to overlook the importance of moral and ethical considerations.

“This is where your role as religious leaders becomes indispensable. Your teachings on compassion, justice and solidarity inspire us to work tirelessly for the betterment of all members of society, especially the least fortunate among us.”

He said Uganda has made significant strides in several key areas including poverty reduction, access to education and health care, gender equality, peace and justice.

He said OPM signed a memorandum of understanding with the Inter-religious Council of Uganda to facilitate and coordinate the implementation of sustainable development goals between the government and the faith-based constituency of the country.

“In particular the areas for collaboration include, capacity building, sustainable financing, monitoring, evaluation and learning.”

He urged religious leaders to stand at the forefront in disseminating census messages.

Dr. Albert Byamugisha, the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) board chair, said that as a continued commitment to making statistics a ‘public good’, the Bureau carries out National Population and Housing Censuses (NPHCs) to inform the development policies and targets as outlined in the National Development Plan (NDP III) as well as in Sub-National, Regional and International Development Frameworks.

“It is from this commitment that UBOS is going to conduct a National Population and Housing census 2024 on May 10th, 2024 all through 19th May, 2024 with an overall objective of ensuring availability of bench-mark demographic and socio-economic data, for use in planning, policy formulation and program evaluation,” he noted.

According to him, census planning facilitates the effective integration and implementation of various activities by ensuring that each phase is properly implemented and that quality outputs are achieved within prescribed timeframes.

“Training is therefore of the components of the planning process to ensure that we are all aligned in the same thought as we undertake the Census,” he stated, adding:

“I believe that the leaders here are going to preach the gospel of census to the maximum using their different communication channels and tools.”