Only seven years ago when Uganda was still operating on power generated by the age-old Owen Falls Dam, Ugandans paid about 171 shillings for domestic power consumption. Interestingly, Ugandans have nothing to celebrate as yet about the commissioning of the 250KW Bujagali Power Dam as the cost of domestic consumption has shot to over 500 shillings per unit. This is getting terribly ridiculous.

The government of Uganda must quickly get back to life and appreciate the plight of the ordinary citizens in this country. Many people today have cookers but cannot cook because of the exorbitant charges; and even when the gospel on the use of so-called energy savers has been whole-heartedly embraced, there is hardly anything reflected on the monthly bills. Besides, a recent plan by government to distribute energy saving bulbs soon disappeared, possibly due to corruption like has happened with many other well-intentioned projects. I even wonder why these bulbs should have been distributed through UMEME, a business firm.

There is nothing as painful as government spending so much of tax payers’ money on an investment that does not relieve the ordinary citizen’s pain at all. Well, one may say that the coming of Bujagali has reduced on load shedding, but surely is this all Ugandans expected from the bargain? Doesn’t the government realise that the higher the cost of electricity, the more the cost of doing business and therefore the more the poverty in the country? How can a legitimate government be so careless about its people?

I have been hearing programmes like rural electrification and improving the standards of living. However, of what use is it to erect poles in the rural areas when the citizens are unable to foot the bills for its use? I called UMEME recently and was told that according to their estimates, on average, a domestic consumer should pay about 50,000 shillings per month. Question: how many Ugandans can afford to pay this, on top of the myriad other utility bills?

I think the government of Uganda was so quick to bend towards capitalism, because majority of the population is still quite poor. In the end, the public utility infrastructure that has been handed over to private investors is only benefiting a small percentage of citizens. We need to re-think our strategies, otherwise projects like Bujagali will continue to be received with indignity, and could be a starting point to a crumbling state rather than setting ground for Uganda to toe into the next tier of development.

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