Legislators have put the Uganda Electricity Distribution Company Limited (UEDCL) on the spot over persistent delays in connecting Ugandans to the national grid and the continued power blackouts across the country.
According to the Chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee (Central Government), Hon. Patrick Nsamba, UEDCL has received over Shs500 billion in funding since the umeme buyout in 2025, but the public has not seen much of a difference in operations.
“Ugandans were promised big about the transition. Government said Umeme was expensive and it wanted to make bigger investments. Since the buyout, you have received several loans and also inherited infrastructure but Ugandans are not seeing the progress,” Nsamba said.
Hon. Betty Naluyima (NUP, Wakiso District Woman Representative) raised concern over the human resource capacity available at UEDCL to handle customer complaints and timely service delivery.
“Can UEDCL tell us whether Umeme had many staff; because on customer feedback, we used to have a WhatsApp channel where responses were timely but now, the public does not know where to report,” said Naluyima.
UEDCL Acting Managing DirectorJoselynne Rwakakooko, told MPs that the entity has received limited funding to carry out timely maintenance of some electricity substations that were inherited from the Umeme concession.
“Infrastructure capability is not static, so, even if you inherit a substation and do not increase its capacity on time, do not carry out timely maintenance, it will deteriorate and its performance will not be optimal. Over the past three years, the investment has not been as required to maintain the infrastructure,” Rwakakooko said.
Irene Batebe, the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development, told the committee that since the Umeme buyout in 2025, government has availed funding to UEDCL worth US$79 (Shs477 billion), which she said has been locked up in procurement processes for transformers and substations.
“One of the key risks that we foresaw UEDCL would face was the procurement delay risk arising from the PPDA law. We worked with PPDA and they certified the company to apply shorter procurement cycles so that we are able to procure this equipment outside the typical long PPDA process,” Batebe said.
She clarified that Umeme transferred the entire network and associated assets to UEDCL, adding that 96 per cent of former Umeme staff have been assimilated into the company.
“For the last one year, we have been working on issues of culture management. When you marry two cultures, you must ensure they mellow to be able to work together,” Batebe added.
Nsamba further pressed UEDCL on its slow progress in serving Ugandans who made payments to be connected to the electricity grid.
“Prior to the closure of Umeme, many Ugandans paid their money and Umeme was supposed to connect them. They have never been connected up to today. The public needs to get assurances that they will be worked on,” Nsamba noted.
Hon. Hope Nakazibwe (NRM, Mubende District Woman Representative) added that there have been no new electricity connections in the district over a long period of time.
Hon. Abdallah Kiwanuka (NUP, Mukono County North) also put UEDCL to task over delayed connections.
“There are several villages in my constituency where we have asked for transformers for over three years. What is the priority getting them, is it on a first come, first served basis?” Kiwanuka asked.
Rwakakooko told MPs that the biggest challenge faced by UEDCL has been availability of electricity metres to be supplied to Ugandans who applied for electricity connections.
She added that close to 77,000 connections have been made this year, with the available materials.
“As metres come in, we are going to go back for all the customers who are ready to connect. One of the things we are focusing on as far as metre supply is the local suppliers, who are relatively new. We had a supply challenge to meet demand, but as of July, we have received over 100,000 metres to begin clearing the backlog,” said Rwakakooko.
