There has been a notable increase in regular power blackouts in the Kampala Metropolitan area of late, with Kawempe division being the latest to suffer the outage.
The load shedding that was announced by Umeme Uganda Limited today morning, has not spared Kawempe referral hospital among other areas in the division.
According to Umeme, the power was switched off to allow maintenance. It was switched off at 8:00 am and it will be back at 5:00 pm.
“Power is off in areas of; Kalerwe Dobbi Zone, Mambule Road, Bwaise Industrial Area, Bwaise Town Centre, Tuskeys Bwaise, Kazo, Nabweru Road, Lugoba Kazinga, and Kawempe Hospital due to a planned shutdown to do maintenance until 5:00 pm,” according to the notice that Umeme.
Also, power was switched off in areas of Nanfumbambi, Kikumikikumi, Kikoni, Kasubi, Namungoona, Kawaala, Mugema, Bawalakata, Kavule, Makerere Business Institute (MBI), Makerere Kikoni, and sorrounding areas. Umeme apologised to its customers for the inconveniences caused.
Wakiso areas affected earlier
On July 30, Umeme announced a power blackout in several areas of Entebbe municipality, again, to allow maintenance works.
The affected areas included; Entebbe, Katabi, Kituburu, Abayita Ababili, Mpala, Kitara, Nkumba, Kasenyi, Kisubi, Entebbe Town, Nsamizi, Manyago, Kitooro, Bugonga, and Kiwafu.
Relatedly, areas of Kira municipality within Wakiso district have also suffered load shedding. However, Umeme this time said the power supply was affected by a fault along the line, but added that the area team had been dispatched to handle for restoration.
Affected areas included; Bulindo, Kitukutwe, Nakwero, Nsasa, Kira, Butenga, Kitikifumba, and parts of Buwate.
The power outages come at a time when energy losses by Umeme have reduced from 27% in 2011 to a target of 14% in 2021, according to the energy and mineral development minister, Ruth Nankabirwa.
The minister also said; “government is implementing the electricity connection policy whose goal is to achieve 60% electricity access to the national grid in Uganda by 2027.”
Nankabirwa made the revelations while updating the media on the status of the energy sector in Uganda at the Ministry headquarters in Kampala on July 30.
In March this year, Umeme launched an operation dubbed ‘Komboa’ in Kampala to reduce the power loss levels, and it was later rolled out to other parts of the country.
