Irate residents living along Gayaza-Kampala road took to the streets on Tuesday to protest the continued load shedding and increased power tariffs.
The angry residents were protesting the manner in which Umeme, the electricity distributing company has been disrupting their businesses with frequent and uncoordinated black outs.
Also in question is the recent announcement by the Ministry of Energy that the power subsidies by government have been eliminated. Residents are seeking government intervention on the new tariffs which now have to be fully met by the consumers.
According to the new tariffs that took effect on January 15th, domestic power consumers are set to pay Shs 524.5 per unit compared to the previous Shs 385.6, while commercial consumers pay Shs 487.6 up from Shs 358.6 per unit.
Kampala Metropolitan Police spokesperson, Ibn Ssenkumbi confirmed the incident saying the residents had blocked the road disrupting traffic. He says police was deployed in the area to calm the situation. Police now remains in the area to quell any further violence.
Two people have so far been arrested in connection with the incident.
The demonstrations come at a time an ad hoc committee of Parliament is investigating the tariff raise. The Committee headed by West Budama South MP Oboth Oboth, on Monday asked officials of the Electricity Regulatory Authority to halt the tariff increase. But the ERA hit back saying Parliament does not have powers to determine electricity tariffs.
Rukungiri Municipality MP, Roland Mugume says Parliament has the right to protect the interests of citizens and warns that the hiking of tariffs could spark more protests.
It is not the first time that residents have demonstrated because of load shedding. In November last year, city traders along Nasser and Nkrumah roads went on strike arguing that UMEME was giving them affecting their businesses.
