The likely future of UEDCL

How this well-structured and managed organization may turn into a political battlefield, leaving Ugandans in the dark

THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | On Monday March 31, 2025, the Umeme concession will come to an end. Its assets will revert to their owner, UEDCL. It is possible UEDCL will manage the electricity distribution network well, improving and expanding the network. But I have little optimism this will be the case. The likely outcome of government of Uganda taking over the electricity distribution network will be to introduce our national politics, with all its divisions, controversies, intrigues, emotions and ignorance, into this business.

Umeme is a private company listed on the Uganda stock exchange. Government of Uganda had little control on its internal management. UEDCL is a company owned and managed 100% by the government of Uganda. This is where the problem lies. As a government owned entity, UEDCL is subject to government procurement procedures which are managed by PPDA. Then the IGG, parliament, the state house anti-corruption unit, the police CID and crime intelligence, the traditional and social media, etc. will all have oversight on the operations of the company.

Many Ugandans think that our country is a dictatorship run by an aging tyrant who is detached from the interests of the citizens. This is a distorted version of our story. The bigger problem of Uganda, however, is not tyranny but democracy. I have been an investigative journalist for over 30 years. My experience shows that the way our democracy has evolved in this country is injurious to the common good. This is most manifest in public hiring of staff and procurement.

As a private company, Umeme could easily and quickly go to the market and procure electricity wires, poles and transformers. With hiring staff, Umeme could choose the most skilled on the market in selection of the board, the CEO and top executives down to the last employee. There may have been cases of nepotism and favoritism, but these were marginal. As a government entity, UEDCL will have to hire its CEO and appoint the board and management through government political maneuvering.

This process will be long and cumbersome, involving political intrigues that will attract intelligence agencies to “vet” candidates. It is here that the worst of Uganda comes into play: the president will be keen to reward loyalists. Even when he wants a technically competent person, he may be lied to by intelligence. For instance, “intelligence” people vetting a particular candidate may claim he/she a political enemy supporting NUP or Kizza Besigye. If a competent CEO is in place and does not do favors to Kampala’s myriad wheeler-dealers, they will feed the president with wrong and malicious information. The poor CEO has no direct access to Museveni. Consequently, they will find themselves in trouble, even go to jail, not because they did anything wrong but because they did everything right.

When it comes to procurement, I have seen Umeme estimates that say that to fix the electricity distribution network in Uganda requires about US$ 1.6 billion. If our country were to become ambitious and seek to achieve this goal, there will be many and big contracts to award. When UEDCL wants to procure, it must follow PPDA rules. When one firm wins, the losers will appeal to PPDA or the IGG or even seek parliamentary intervention. Using both traditional and social media, they will demonize the CEO and the board that made the decision, however good it may have been.

The problem is that none of these organizations will intervene to solve the problem neutrally. Instead, they will be inundated with lobbyists offering them bribes and/or claiming to represent the interests of the president, the CDF Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba or Gen Salim Saleh. In all these cases, these claims will be bogus since neither of these people is ever involved in these deals. I have been close to Muhoozi and Saleh for very long. I know they never sponsor any of these things, yet many government officials are always lied to that they are behind this or that company.

VIDEO: Mwenda on UBC (click here)

This week, I appeared on UBC television with the CEO of UEDCL, Paul Mwesigwa. I was impressed by the clarity of his vision for the company, his confidence to take over Umeme and manage it well and his record of performance. But UEDCL has revenues of about Shs 200 billion. Umeme grosses Shs 2.2 trillion. Perhaps Mwesigwa has not been disturbed because he has been frying a small fish. Now with Shs 2.4 trillion in revenues, he will have a large procurement budget. This will bring the attention of all the sharks and wheeler dealers onto him with relentless pressure.

The more Mwesigwa spoke well of his plans and achievements, the greater the sympathy I felt for him. It is true a few good managers of government entities have survived political intrigue, and some government companies have performed well. NWSC, NSSF, Housing Finance Bank, Post Bank, Pride Micro Finance, UEDCL, New Vision etc. have been exemplars of good management. Yet these have been few, and like NSSF, have had to go through a painful process of growth for political interference to subside.

I remember in 2001 when William Muheirwe, then CEO of NWSC, was almost ousted on dubious claims that he was supporting Kizza Besigye. Why? Because his wife, Vicky, was a close friend of Martha Byanyima, sister of Winnie Byanyima, wife of Besigye. There are people like Geoffrey Onegi Obel and David Jamwa who went to jail over flimsy reasons, their careers almost destroyed. I have seen many good managers fought and chased out of organization because they misread the politics and tried to stick to technical competences against political considerations.

In Uganda these days, every tomato vendor, fish monger, sex worker, street thug etc. with access to social media has a say over how to manage a public enterprise. Then comes in our parliamentarians. They often intervene in public enterprises to extract bribes from managers, not to correct mistakes. This structure of incentives favors thugs and crooks willing to deploy public money to buy off these politicians. It also disfavors public spirit government employees trying to promote the public good.

Here is my prediction: when UEDCL issues a tender to buy electricity wires, poles and transformers, it will be taken to PPDA, contested before the IGG, debated in parliament, quarreled over on traditional and social media and even invite the intervention of the president. The matter will take months to resolve. Meanwhile the distribution lines will collapse, and electricity blackouts become rampant. I pray my predictions are wrong.

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amwenda@ugindependent.co.ug