Bosco Emot, a resident of Aderlongo trading center, explained that power, which was connected to the area under the Rural Electrification Program, went out in October of the previous year, just a few weeks after the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) handed it over to Umeme.
Aderolongo trading center in Akali Sub County in Kwania District has been without power for the last two years after the breakdown of transformer (Photo by Solomon Okabo)
Residents of Aderlongo trading center in Akali Sub County, Kwania District, have issued a two-week ultimatum to the electricity distributor, Umeme, demanding the restoration of power in their area or face legal consequences.
The residents, who have been without electricity for the past two years, say the prolonged outage is severely affecting their businesses. They claim there has been no clear explanation from Umeme regarding the situation.
Bosco Emot, a resident of Aderlongo trading center, explained that power, which was connected to the area under the Rural Electrification Program, went out in October of the previous year, just a few weeks after the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) handed it over to Umeme.
Luo Bite:
//Cue in: “Yi ape yom …
Cue out: … wa obale oko.”//
Kenneth Okunyu, a local salon operator, lamented that before the power outage, he had more than 30 customers daily. Now, due to the lack of electricity, the number of his customers has dropped to fewer than 10. He urged Umeme to expedite the restoration process.
Christopher Agum, the Akali Sub County LCV Councilor and Kwania District Speaker stated that as local leaders, they have repeatedly raised the issue with Umeme, but no substantial action has been taken.
Eng Bite:
//Cue in: “I have experienced …
Cue out: … power is working.”//
Jimmy Obura, a retired head teacher of Abongomola Seed Secondary School and a resident of Aderlongo, said that the power outage has caused widespread disruption to businesses in the area. He appealed to Umeme to focus on strengthening supervision in rural areas to ensure the success of the Rural Electrification Program.
Eng Bite:
//Cue in: “We had light …
Cue out: … not be got.”//
Stephen Epilu, the Umeme Lira Branch Station Engineer, acknowledged receiving the complaint and attributed the power outage to a transformer breakdown, assuring residents that it would be addressed soon.
In 2013, the Ugandan government, through the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development, launched the Rural Electrification Strategy to increase electricity access in rural areas to 26% by 2022.
This initiative aimed to achieve 1.28 million new on-grid connections and 14,000 off-grid connections.
In the past five months alone, the number of applications for electricity connections to Uganda’s main distribution grid has increased by 53.8%. As of December last year, about 2.3 million households, both rural and urban, are now connected to power, according to industry statistics.
Solomon Okabo
Freelancer