____________

December will be a ‘dark month’ due to power outages across the country, according to Umeme management.

The power outage is due to the announced repairs aiming at bettering services.

“Please be advised that in a bid to serve you better with reliable, safe and quality supply of electricity, we will have scheduled maintenance on our networks in the month of December 2023,” Umeme said in November 27, 2023, public statement.

Umeme head of communication, Peter Kaujju, told New Vision that the maintenance has been ongoing since October, and that the one of next month will be a continuation. This means, several parts of the country will spend hours and some times days without power due to said maintenance.

“We have been carrying out maintenance activities since last month; so, the disruptions have been on in some areas. We plan to carry on with the process in December so as we can have our clients access better services,” Kaujju said.

Asked whether the maintenances would affect businesses, Kaujju said the disruptions are necessary for the greater good. He appealed to the general public to bear with the situation which he said would be short-lived.

Government recently warned that intensified cases of vandalism of power facilities including lines by unknown people would lead to load shedding in various parts of the country.

In the past four or so months, the number of cases of vandalism of power lines all over the country have gone up with many of the lines vandalized for scrap.

However, security has intensified operations targeting vandals of power installations.

Earlier last year, a joint intelligence led security operation in Kampala led to the arrest of five people and over 40 tones of angle lines used in erecting high voltage power lines which were later recovered.

Patrick Onyango, the Kampala metropolitan police spokesperson said the operations were conducted in the areas of social centres such as scrap yard village in Mengo, scrap yard at Budonian village, and Kisenyi scrap dealers.

“The operation targeted areas where suspected electrical materials are stored and sold in areas of Kisenyi. This comes after reports of constant vandalism of Umeme electrical materials in different parts of the country and are brought to Kisenyi and neighboring areas for sale,” Onyango said.

Other than angle lines, security also recovered railway line rails, solar poles.

The area of Kisenyi where the items were recovered is known to have many scrap dealers.