Residents in Luweero have asked president Yoweri Museveni to terminate the UMEME's contract to supply power on grounds that the company has failed to ensure a steady power supply resulting to massive losses.
The residents sounded out their plea on Saturday while the president was in Luwero to campaign for Rebbecca Nalwanga, the NRM candidate for by elections.
Joel Sseruker, one of the residents who attended the rally, said the maize mills have closed pushing him into joblessness.
Jenipher Nalukwago, said the power outage have resulted into a water crisis prompting a hike in the cost of water. She said the prices of water has risen to 700 shillings per jerrycan.
President Museveni said that UMEME is not the problem for the current load shedding in the country but opposition and press that frustrated his attempts to build a dam at Bujagali falls to supplement the low power supply.
Museveni said that opposition used the press to decampaign his initiatives and should be blamed for sabotaging development in the country. He explained that the government tried to adopt thermal plants and uses 50 billion per month to subsidize the projects.
He said the problem of load shedding will be under control, when the first unit of the 250-MW Bujagali Hydropower Project is commissioned, by end of November.
But Salaam Musumba the Vice president of Forum for Democratic Change who was campaigning for Ziadah Gwokyala in Makulubita Sub County on Saturday, said that load shedding will not stop for as long as UMEME is in control. She claimed that govermnent officials are using UMEME to rob money from Ugandans.
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