Hundreds of residents in Maziba Sub-county, Kabale District, have expressed frustration over the government’s failure to extend electricity to communities surrounding the Muvumbe Hydropower Station, nearly a decade after the facility began generating power for Uganda’s national grid.
The 6.5-megawatt hydropower plant, constructed by Muvumbe Hydro (Uganda) Limited, began operations in March 2017 after construction started in 2015. Despite hosting the facility, many residents in the area remain without access to electricity.
Maziba Sub-county chairperson Onesmus Mutungye told Monitor that it was unacceptable that communities hosting the power station had remained in darkness for nine years.
“We appeal to the government to intervene in this matter because it is embarrassing to have such a big hydroelectric generating power station that does not provide electricity to all the villages, trading centres, community institutions such as churches, schools and health centres,” Mutungye said.
He added: “At the beginning of the project, we thought it would provide electricity to boost the development of cottage industries for value addition, but nine years later Maziba Sub-county has remained the way it was before the hydroelectric generating power station was established.”
Maziba comprises 65 villages and lies along Uganda’s border with Rwanda.
Mutungye said two government-supported agro-processing projects, a Shs400 million coffee processing factory and a Shs400 million pineapple processing plant, remain idle because they have never been connected to electricity.
He added that the area is a major producer of coffee, bananas and pineapples, but farmers continue to sell raw produce to middlemen due to the absence of value-addition facilities.
“Farmers are left with no option other than being exploited by middlemen and the youth have remained unemployed,” he remarked.
The senior Uganda Electricity Distribution Company Limited (UEDCL) area manager for Kabale, Lovinsa Nshemerirwe, said the hydropower project was developed by an Independent Power Producer (IPP) whose role was limited to generating electricity for supply into the national grid.
“Muvumbe hydroelectric generation dam was constructed by an Independent Power Producer and it was not their mandate to provide power to the community members but rather to generate power and have it connected to the main electricity grid to boost electricity supply,” Nshemerirwe explained.
She advised residents to petition political leaders to lobby for rural electrification infrastructure.
“The complaining individuals should petition their area Member of Parliament and the district leadership to lobby the Rural Electrification Agency to construct electricity lines, and as UEDCL we shall connect them after they have applied for electricity connection in the area,” she said.
Ndorwa East MP Protazy Begumisa acknowledged the problem and pledged to engage the government to address the lack of electricity in the area.
“Lack of electricity in some parts of Ndorwa East constituency where Muvumbe hydroelectric power station is located is a real problem,” Begumisa said, adding: “Some areas do not have access to telecommunication networks because of lack of electricity and road network to hilltops where telecom masts can be constructed. I will try my level best to lobby the Office of the Prime Minister for support.”
The legislator said he would also use personal resources to support electricity extension in some villages.
“My approach for this term of office is to talk less and work for the people,” he added.
Located in Kigarama Village, Nyanja Parish, the Muvumbe Hydropower Station was licensed by the Electricity Regulatory Authority in 2014 to generate and sell power to the Uganda Electricity Transmission Company Limited for integration into the national grid.
Residents say that ‘while the project has contributed to national electricity supply, its failure to benefit host communities has undermined local economic development and delayed efforts to establish agro-processing industries in one of Kabale’s key agricultural areas.’