As complaints about power outages in Uganda continue to rise, the Minister of Energy Ruth Nankabirwa has urged Ugandans to be patient, explaining that the ongoing transition from Umeme to Uganda Electricity Distribution Company Limited (UEDCL) is the primary cause of the disruptions.
She assured the public that the situation is expected to stabilize by April 2025, once the government secures funding to strengthen UEDCL.
Her response followed concerns raised by Brenda Nabukenya, the Luwero District Woman Representative, who lamented the worsening power supply in Luwero.
Nabukenya revealed that for the past two months, the district has only been receiving electricity for between two and six hours a day.
Addressing Parliament, Nankabirwa attributed the ongoing power cuts to the end of Umeme’s concession, which officially expired on February 28, 2025.
She explained that the government had reduced investments into Umeme ahead of the transition, which in turn affected the company’s ability to maintain the electricity infrastructure.
“We are going through the tail end of the concession with Umeme, actually the concession ended on 28th February 2025, we are going through the transition period. Before that, government decided not to invest more into Umeme, so Umeme reduced on the investment that means that we can’t respond spontaneously to answer calls of power outages which could be a failure of a transformer, or breakup of a line or a tree has fallen on the line,” said Minister Nankabirwa.
The minister reassured the public and legislators that the situation is being handled and will be resolved soon.
She expressed optimism that once the government secures a loan currently before Parliament, UEDCL will be adequately prepared to take over from Umeme and manage the distribution network efficiently.
“But I want to promise you that by April,1, 2025, we would have gone through this if the loan that is before Parliament which has the money for the successor company, UEDCL, will help us a great deal to prepare UEDCL to be ready to respond spontaneously without going through rigors of applying for money, which could take a long time. This is going to be a small inconvenience and I would like MPs and the House at large to bear with us. I will cross-check if there is any other cause other than what I have explained so that we can come up and rectify,” she explained.
In many parts of Uganda, people are complaining about frequent power outages.
Additionally, many are frustrated with the poor attitude they receive from Umeme distributors when they reach out for assistance.
