Legislators have put the Uganda Electricity Distribution Company Limited (UEDCL) on the spot over persistent delays in connecting Ugandans to the national grid and continued power blackouts across the country.
According to Hon. Patrick Nsamba, Chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee (Central Government), UEDCL has received over Shs500 billion in funding since the Umeme buyout in 2025, but service delivery has not improved.
“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 during an interaction at the Parliament Conference Hall.
He further pressed UEDCL on customers who paid for connections before Umeme closed but have still not been connected.
“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. Betty Naluyima (NUP, Wakiso District Woman Representative) questioned UEDCL’s human resource capacity.
“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.
Hon. Hope Nakazibwe (NRM, Mubende District Woman Representative) said there have been no new electricity connections in Mubende for a long period, while Hon. Abdallah Kiwanuka (NUP, Mukono County North) asked about villages that have waited over 3 years for transformers.
“What is the priority, is it on a first come, first served basis?” Kiwanuka asked.
UEDCL Acting Managing Director, Joselynne Rwakakooko, told MPs the entity has received limited funding for timely maintenance of substations inherited from Umeme.
“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.
She said the biggest challenge has been availability of electricity metres.
“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. As of July, we have received over 100,000 metres to begin clearing the backlog,” she added. UEDCL is also focusing on local suppliers.
Irene Batebe, Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development, said government has availed US$79 million (Shs477 billion) to UEDCL since the 2025 buyout, but the funds are “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,” Batebe said.
She also clarified that 96 per cent of former Umeme staff have been assimilated into UEDCL and that government has spent the last one year working on “culture management” after merging the two teams.
