Kilembe investments limited on spot over power outages in Kasese

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT  | Kilembe Investments Limited has come under criticism over inconsistent power supply in Kasese.

KIL is an energy distribution company operating within the districts of Kasese, Rubirizi, Sheema, Bushenyi and Mitooma. The power distributor has however been criticized by residents of Kasese over inconsistencies in power supply.

Fauza Kule Mbuluta, the Mpondwe—Lhubiriha town council district councillor revealed that for a week now, Mpondwe-Lhubiriha has been suffering with a power shutdown.

Mbuluta added that in addition to power outages, KIL has a poor customer care to the extent that it does not communicate whenever a shutdown is to take place.

Annet Mutswanga, the Kyalhumba sub-county councillor says that people’s electronic items were getting damages due to inconsistencies in power supply.

Mutswanga also said businesses were registering losses especially those dealing in locally manufactured soft drinks because they get spoilt due to lack of electricity to preserve the drinks.

Engineer Luke Byakutaaga, the head of technical services at Kilembe Investments Limited, while responding to the queries by the leaders before the district council at Kasese multipurpose hall on Tuesday said power supply involves a lot of stakeholders and thus some of the causes could be coming from the other stakeholders like power generator and or the other distributors like Umeme.

He cited the Kasese—Kikorongo power line which he said is maintained by Umeme yet it supplies KIL customers in Bwera and Kisinga areas.

Byakutaaga also appealed to residents to strengthen communication with the power distributor explaining that sometimes it is only the transformers that have faults yet there is no way KIL will learn about it unless they have been informed by the power consumers.

Bwambale Kataliko the compliance officer at Kilembe Investments Limited, however, appealed to the district leaders to help the institution in fighting vandalism of the power lines.

Bwambale said the power distributor is partly grappling with power outages because of vandals meted on the power line in the different parts of the district.

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