As the National Population and Housing Census got underway countrywide on Friday, an enumerator in Njeru municipality, Buikwe District, was reportedly pursued by three men and stabbed.
Mr James Kalyango was supposed to enumerate residents of Namuwaya Village but decided to first relay some messages on a megaphone at around 6:30am in an attempt to rally masses for the national cause.
Speaking from a hospital bed on Friday, Kalyango said: “Our supervisor last (Thursday) night told me to wake up early and relay an announcement on a megaphone, reminding locals that today (Friday) is a Public Holiday and that they should, therefore, stay home and be counted.”
He added: “While I was doing so, three men came from different sides and started beating me up, while one had a sharp object which he used to stab my right ear and left me for dead in a trench.”
Kalyango said he was rushed to hospital by a Good Samaritan who notified his family.
Namuwaya village LC1 chairman, Joseph Ssajjabbi, said he was surprised by the attack, saying such cases are rare in his tight-knit community.
“I think the people who attacked our enumerator knew him, thinking that he had gadgets belonging to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (Ubos),” Ssajjabbi theorised.
“It is true the attack happened and the case was reported at our station, but besides that, the exercise moved on well in other areas,” she said, adding that they managed to enumerate people in hotels, lodges and all roadblocks mounted at the New Bridge.
