By Sharon Tibenda

12^th Dec 2011:

Army Chief: Are his Generals guilty?

The recent protests by business owners and traders along Kampala’s Nasser road against Umeme’s persistent load-shedding was caused in part by the chronic failure of powerful army General who own commercial properties there to pay their electricity bills, Uganda Correspondent can exclusively reveal.

According to our source, a top Umeme official who spoke to this reporter on strict condition of anonymity, the property owning UPDF Generals have for years been using their unchecked power and influence in government to intimidate Umeme officials who turn up to demand payment or to disconnect electricity supply to their properties.

The Generals would then pass on their ill gotten “savings” from non-payment of electricity bills to their tenants who, over time, like spoilt children from rich families, got used to operating their businesses for cheap rent dues.  However, trouble erupted when Umeme put its foot down and decided to disconnect all power supplies to the properties owned by the defaulting Generals.

Unaware that their load-shedding troubles had been partly caused by their thieving Landlords’ failure to pay electricity bills for their properties, many of the tenants angrily took to the streets to vent their anger against Umeme.  Of course, as we now know, Umeme was only partly to blame for the persistent load-shedding that has been crippling businesses on Nasser road and other parts of the country.

Other tenants on Nasser road however knew that their powerful UPDF Landlords were partly to blame, but feared to confront them.  One such tenant was Mr. Ismael Muwanga, who runs a small Graphic Design & Printing cubical business on Nasser road.  Ismael also operates a Coca Cola branded Kiosk that he says is on the verge of collapse because he can’t sell cold drinks.

“…Umeme load-shedding is bad but we were managing to survive slowly-slowly.  But our big problem now is afande.  Everyone here knows that he has never paid Umeme and yet sometimes he demands more money from us saying we have increased the bill.  But we cannot touch him because he will chase us away.” Ismael said.

A few blocks down the road towards the defunct Uganda Railways train station, Sarah Namayanja, a 25 year old Makerere University graduate sits helplessly next to her old desk-top computer with misery written all over her beautiful young face.  Sarah says she is unable to do her secretarial work because of the power shortage caused by her Landlord’s failure to pay electricity bills.

“…We are trapped.  We cannot do anything to our Landlord because he is a big soldier.  When we complain, he says go and tell Umeme.  And yet sometimes he is the one who doesn’t pay. I have young brothers and sisters to look after but I am here seated doing nothing.” the bitter young lady said.

Last week, we reported that anti-riot police had taken over Umeme offices in Masaka after traders were stopped from demonstrating against persistent load-shedding by Umeme.  This latest development involving UPDF Generals however leaves open the question of whether the load-shedding woes across the country are all down to Umeme.

Umeme staff arrested for sabotaging Gen. Museveni

On a slightly different but no less disturbing development, our Umeme source also revealed that some of their field staff operating in several areas of eastern Uganda were arrested by district security officials who accused them of maliciously sabotaging President Museveni’s 2006 election pledge.

The story goes like this:  During his 2006 campaigns in the area, President Museveni had allegedly promised the locals in the area that if they voted for him, he would make sure they get electricity.  The village folks dutifully voted for candidate Museveni on, among other things, the strength of his electricity promise.

A few years later, President Museveni indeed delivered on his election promise and the area was connected to the national grid.  But there was a grey area:  The locals mistakenly thought they would never have to pay for electricity since it was promised by the President.

So naturally, when Umeme staff turned up with bills and demanded payment, the villagers, invoking the President’s promise, refused to pay.  Umeme staff were therefore left with no option but to disconnect power supply to the area.  This triggered protests from the locals who marched to the Resident District Commissioner’s [RDC’s] office to register their displeasure.

Incensed by the news, the RDC quickly despatched his district security officials who, as commanded, arrested the Umeme officials for sabotaging the President’s development programmes.  As a result, Umeme were forced to reconnect power to the area.

And according to our source, none of the villagers has paid a penny to Umeme since.  Our efforts to get a comment from Army Spokesman Lt. Col. Felix Kulaigye were futile.  However, another top UPDF officer attached to Mbuya army headquarters played down the gravity of the allegations against the force’s top Generals, arguing that, “…if such things happen, then they are clearly actions of individual rogue officers and not institutional practice by the UPDF.  Every basket will always have some rotten apples.” the officer said. END. Please login to www.ugandacorrespondent.com every Monday to read our top stories and anytime mid-week for our news updates.