Museveni raps bbumba over load shedding

Oct 10, 2004

PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni has criticised the Minister of Energy, Syda Bbumba, for attributing the current power shortage to drought.<br>Addressing the nation during celebrations to mark Uganda’s 42nd independence anniversary at Kololo Airstrip on Saturday, the President said the minister was play

By Felix Osike
PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni has criticised the Minister of Energy, Syda Bbumba, for attributing the current power shortage to drought.
Addressing the nation during celebrations to mark Uganda’s 42nd independence anniversary at Kololo Airstrip on Saturday, the President said the minister was playing him lullabies over the power shortages.
Uganda Electricity Distribution Company employees were booed by the public during a march past at the airstrip for stepping up power rationing nationwide.
“The Minister of Energy is playing lullabies for me, saying the shortage is because of drought and soon the drought will be over and that two generators have been ordered to rectify the situation. I would accept the lullaby but the question is, what is wrong with having a reserve capaci
ty so that when there is drought we don’t suffer? Why must we be on the borderline?” he asked.
He requested the band to play him his favourite Kinyankole lullaby, Oyonkye Nkusherekye, saying Bbumba was trying to send him to sleep.
Bumba, who attended the function, recently said power would be imported from Kenya to cover the shortfall in power generated at the two dams at Jinja. In the meantime, power is being switched off daily from 7:00am to 6:00pm and from 7:00pm to 11:00pm.
“Sorry about the shortage but I was surprised because I was told that the shortage was growing by 4 megawatts per month, that would be 48mw per year. Now we are being told the shortage is 80MW. I am willing to be in the bush on the issue of electricity like I was on the issue of defence expenditure and to engage in talks with those concerned so that we have guaranteed power,” Museveni said.
He said had the Government plan of building three dams at Kalagala, Bujagali and Karuma been successful, Uganda would not be suffering electricity shortages.
“Some of our friends said it would be dangerous, that Uganda would suffer from too much electricity. They recommended sequencing of dams. Because of that, we are having these shortages,” he said.
Museveni said interference from development partners had made it impossible to hold anybody responsible for the problem.
“We want a conceptual consensus on a number of issues which we will want all our partners to respect. A country cannot be everybody’s business because everybody’s business is nobody’s business,” he said.
On security, Museveni said the terrorism orchestrated by the Sudan regime had been contained. “That problem is now unwinding down after we rejected the position of some of our friends who were saying we should not spend enough on defence.
“We are glad that peace is returning to southern Sudan and northern Uganda,” he said.
He said the population living in camps would soon go back to their homes, adding that over the last 14 months, 1,800 LRA rebels were killed, 200 captured and 1,393 surrendered.
Museveni criticised the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, Jan Egeland, for comparing the situation in northern Uganda to the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, Sudan.
“I’m surprised there are certain circles in the world who did not want us to defeat these terrorists.” They are always writing false reports about Uganda. It is true people have been in the camps but the situation is now under control,” he said.
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