MUKONO, Uganda – The Uganda Electricity Distribution Company Limited (UEDCL) says vandalism of a transmission pylon on the Mukono line has caused a major blackout, leaving the utility unable to supply at least four million units of electricity and disrupting service to more than 128,000 customers.
UEDCL Managing Director Paul Mwesigwa said the six-day outage has cost the company an estimated four million units of electricity, out of the 16 million units it sells monthly in the affected area, translating into billions of shillings in losses.
“We are supposed to get 157 megawatts, but we can only receive 15 megawatts from the alternative supply at SCOUL. We are experiencing a shortage of over 90 percent of the energy required to serve our customers,” Mwesigwa said. Full supply is expected to return by Tuesday.
The blackout has severely hit industries along the Mukono–Eastern Kampala industrial corridor, where between 200 and 300 factories depend on the damaged line. Affected manufacturers told officials from UETCL and UEDCL during a November 22 briefing that production had ground to a halt.
“The impact is growing by the hour,” said Sam Mukisa, Human Resource Manager at Landy Industries Limited. “We cannot run heavy machinery on generators, and our daily-wage workers have been sent home.”
At Tembo Steels, Gavran Dwivedi warned that the shutdown was disrupting steel operations and urged government to reinforce security on transmission routes “to prevent a recurrence.”
Uganda Electricity Transmission Company Limited (UETCL) Chief Executive Officer Richard Matsiko appealed for calm, saying engineers were rebuilding the vandalised tower and stabilising the line. “We have mobilised adequate resources, and supply is expected to be restored by early next week,” he said.
UETCL officials confirmed that the incident affected three substations, cutting off supply to major industrial and public facilities, including Tian Tang, Kampala Cement, Quality Plastics, Landy Industries, Abacus Parenteral Drugs, the Katosi Water Project, Mpoma, Mbalala and Tembo Steels.
The vandalism also disrupted water production, with the National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC) reporting that its output had dropped by half. “We are producing about 50 million litres daily, meaning we have lost 50 percent of our capacity,” said NWSC spokesperson Samuel Apedel. Areas affected include Eastern Kampala, Mukono District, Namugongo, Gayaza, Kamwokya, Kireka, Mbuya, Matuga and surrounding communities.
Eng. Protaze Tibyakinura, UETCL’s Chief Engineer for Technical Services, said technical teams were working around the clock to replace damaged components and restore full supply. He also reported that one of the suspected vandals was fatally electrocuted during the incident, and the matter had been handled by the relevant authorities.
Authorities have appealed to the public to report any suspicious activity around transmission infrastructure to curb further acts of vandalism.
