UEDCL To Probe Deaths
Jul 07, 2003
THE Uganda Electricity Distribution Company Limited (UEDCL) yesterday set up a committee to probe the circumstances under which one of its workers was electrocuted while fixing a faulty power line, reports <b>Geoffrey Kamali.</b>
THE Uganda Electricity Distribution Company Limited (UEDCL) yesterday set up a committee to probe the circumstances under which one of its workers was electrocuted while fixing a faulty power line, reports Geoffrey Kamali.
The deceased, Salim Lubega, was fixing a 33-KV high voltage line in Kajansi, on the Kampala-Entebbe highway, when current was suddenly switched on. It killed him instantly.
The incident brings to two the deaths in two months.
Another linesman was recently killed while fixing a faulty line near Kalerwe market in Kampala.
Another man, Joseph Mbabali alias Makanika, earlier reported dead, is still admitted in the Intensive Care Unit at Rubaga Hospital while a third, whose identity is yet to be established, was discharged.
The committee is headed by Robert Mubiru, the Kampala area customer relations manager and comprises other engineers, Mubiru said yesterday.
Two workers, based at Najjanankumbi power station, were yesterday questioned by Police in Katwe over the incident.
Lubega’s relatives picked his body from the city mortuary yesterday and took it to his home in Lyantonde, Rakai district.
Mubiru said, “The committee will look at the incident and how the events occurred. We don’t even know whether power had been switched off (at the time they climbed the power poles).â€
“We are not working today. We are going for burial. Meanwhile, someone must explain why power was switched on when it must be off before the linesmen get to work,†said John Otto, a UEDCL worker.
Ends
The deceased, Salim Lubega, was fixing a 33-KV high voltage line in Kajansi, on the Kampala-Entebbe highway, when current was suddenly switched on. It killed him instantly.
The incident brings to two the deaths in two months.
Another linesman was recently killed while fixing a faulty line near Kalerwe market in Kampala.
Another man, Joseph Mbabali alias Makanika, earlier reported dead, is still admitted in the Intensive Care Unit at Rubaga Hospital while a third, whose identity is yet to be established, was discharged.
The committee is headed by Robert Mubiru, the Kampala area customer relations manager and comprises other engineers, Mubiru said yesterday.
Two workers, based at Najjanankumbi power station, were yesterday questioned by Police in Katwe over the incident.
Lubega’s relatives picked his body from the city mortuary yesterday and took it to his home in Lyantonde, Rakai district.
Mubiru said, “The committee will look at the incident and how the events occurred. We don’t even know whether power had been switched off (at the time they climbed the power poles).â€
“We are not working today. We are going for burial. Meanwhile, someone must explain why power was switched on when it must be off before the linesmen get to work,†said John Otto, a UEDCL worker.
Ends