'You’ll be arrested' - UBOS warns on taking census tablets

The Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) has warned enumerators against intentions of stealing census tablets.

Speaking to the press on Tuesday, the executive director of UBOS, Dr Chris Mukiza, warned that whoever steals a census tablet will be tracked and arrested by police.

“Those who are having intentions of stealing the tablets had better left them. Otherwise you will be taken to police,” Mukiza warned.

Mukiza also said that whoever is arrested for stealing tablets will not get police bond.

Worth noting is that the government spent Shs132 billion to procure tablets for the recently concluded digital national census.

It is understood that upon the completion of the census exercise, the tablets are to be distributed to parish chiefs for other national programmes.

Last month, the Minister of ICT and National Guidance, Chris Baryomunsi, revealed that the census gadgets are to be given to parish chiefs at the end of the exercise, to aid Parish Development Model (PDM) work.

“The computers which are being used for the census enumeration, once the exercise is over, then these computers will now be given to the parish chiefs for them to make sure that all the data, all the information regarding PDM is put into the system and then can be analyzed,” Baryomunsi said.

He also revealed that the same tablets will be used for voter registration ahead of 2026 general elections.