Mukono police net trio in power cable theft crackdown

__________________

The police in Nkonge village, Kyampisi subcounty, Mukono district, have arrested three men suspected of being part of a syndicate stealing electricity cables and defrauding residents by posing as officials of the Uganda Electricity Distribution Company Limited (UEDCL).

The suspects, identified as Vincent Mukisa, Francis Jime and Ronald Lwangolo, were apprehended in a joint operation involving local police and a specialised government task force mandated to combat the theft of electricity wires and infrastructure across the country.

According to police, the trio had been stealing various types of solid electrical cables from the national grid. They allegedly approached residents, falsely claiming to be authorised UEDCL workers capable of connecting homes to the electricity supply. In the process, they collected money from unsuspecting residents while removing valuable cables for sale as scrap.

During the arrest, officers recovered a motorcycle with registration number UEY 565, which the suspects were using in their operations. Other members of the group reportedly fled the scene on a second motorcycle and are still being pursued.

At Nkonge Police Post, authorities displayed some of the items recovered from the suspects, including metal-spiked climbing boots used for scaling electricity poles, bundles of stolen wires and solid cables, as well as electricity meter boxes.

While in custody, the arrested men turned on each other. Mukisa and Lwangolo accused Jime of being the mastermind who recruited them into the illegal operations and provided the tools and logistics needed.

In his defence, Jime claimed he was innocently cutting a tree for a wealthy employer when a man named Ashraf approached him and asked for assistance in “removing an electricity pole.”

He insisted he was drawn into the scheme without fully understanding its criminal nature.

Hussein Ssula Mugugwa, the head of the national task force fighting wire and electricity theft, condemned the suspects’ actions.

“These individuals have been disrupting electricity networks across the region,” Mugugwa said. “Their activities have caused the electricity company to lose huge sums of money through vandalism and stolen infrastructure. More importantly, they have deprived ordinary Ugandans of a reliable electricity supply. We shall continue to crack down on such syndicates without mercy.”

The three suspects are expected to be arraigned in court soon to face charges of theft, impersonation and vandalism of critical infrastructure. Police have appealed to the public to remain vigilant and report any suspicious individuals claiming to work for electricity companies without proper identification.

This arrest is part of a broader nationwide campaign to stem the rising cases of power infrastructure theft, which continues to undermine Uganda’s efforts to expand reliable electricity access.