Acholi reacts to UBOS Population results
The population figures that were just revealed, which indicate a 200,000-person decline in the Acholi subregion, have taken the locals and their leaders by surprise and infuriated them
They believe that the results are politically motivated in order to deny the people of Acholi government services.
The Ker Kwaro Acholi cultural institution is calling for answers from the Uganda Bureau of Statistics if they are to take the results seriously, “the population should have grown, but if you say the population has declined so much with the statistics you are creating the we doubt the whole census exercise” said the Deputy Prime Minister in charge of land, environment and planning Martin Okumu.
The leaders in the region have been left in shock and anger.
According to the Bardege-Layibi division Mayor Patrick Lumumba “this UBOS results are very shocking, we can analyze and say it could be political”.
Acholi sub region emerged from the destructive Lord Resistance Army inspired war in 2006, and by the time of the 2014 national census the people in the region were counted to a total of 1.47 million.
However, a recent slide shared on social media by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics shows that the population of the Acholi people has declined from 2.1 million in 2014 to 1.9 million people today.
Gilbert Olanya who represents the people of Kilak South on the floor of Parliament says “I feel that there are some people who are reducing the number of the Acholi people intentionally, just to deny our people the services that the government provides”.
The leaders emphasise that since returning from the Internally Displaced People’s camps, the region has not experienced any war or famine that could have led to the death of so many people.
The UBOS population results are also seen as a way to escalate land grabbing and phase in the migrant cattle farmers who are now in the region as the Balaalo.
The Kilak south MP insists that “let them allow the LC1s to start registering people's household and then let them compare the number from the LC1 list with what they have entered in their database” while the Bardege-Layibi Mayor says “if it is (the results) scientific, then we need explanation from government”, Patrick Lumumba continues that “putting us where we are that means we are destined to more under development because development is tagged to population”.
The discrepancies in the figures have raised question marks within the Acholi population and its Ker Kwaro Acholi cultural institution.
The deputy prime minister concludes that the 2024 population census exercise had so many shortcomings and he had alerted that executive director of the Uganda Bureau of Statistics “I personally talked to the executive director of UBOS and told him look there are a lot of challenges with the census this year, personally I was not even counted and this is a family of eight people, we were not counted”.