Butebo, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Uganda Electricity Distribution Company Limited (UEDCL) has invested more than Shs240 million in electricity distribution infrastructure in Butebo District, in a move expected to improve power reliability and support growing commercial and industrial activity in the area. The projects, commissioned over the weekend, …
Read More »If Africa is generating more electricity, why are millions still without reliable power?
Uganda’s seven-decade electricity journey reveals the gap between generating electricity and getting it reliably into homes, businesses and communities Kampala, Uganda | RONALD MUSOKE | On April 29, 1954, Uganda switched on a new chapter in its economic history. At Owen Falls, where the Nile leaves Lake Victoria, the country’s …
Read More »Power, pleasure and patriarchy: Why The Polygamist on Netflix is captivating viewers
ENTERTAINMENT | GRACE KHUNOU | The Polygamist is a Netflix series that has soared up the streaming platform’s charts and triggered a global conversation about men who cheat in relationships. It tracks the fatal ruptures in what seems like a successful upper class family, the Gomoras. Although the story plays out in South Africa, the …
Read More »When Villagers Steal Power: Why government should decentralize rural electrification
Kampala, Uganda | URN | Uganda has expanded electricity generation and extended the national grid to millions of people, yet many communities remain without reliable or affordable access to power. Through the story of fatal electrocutions in eastern Uganda and insights from energy governance expert Siraj Magara Luyima, this analysis …
Read More »Why Africa’s solar revolution is about resilience, not power
Across Africa, engineers and entrepreneurs are redesigning renewable energy to withstand weak infrastructure, limited financing, and unpredictable conditions NEWS ANALYSIS | RONALD MUSOKE | In the northern reaches of Uganda, where the road from the provincial capital, Gulu, stretches toward the South Sudan border and the landscape opens into wide, …
Read More »The geography of power and the price of ignorance
COMMENT | ANDREW PI BESI | When commenting on the 1980–1988 Iraq–Iran war, Henry Kissinger once remarked that it was “a pity both sides can’t lose”. It was a chilling distillation of a worldview in which distant conflicts are not tragedies to be resolved, but instruments to be managed. Alongside Zbigniew …
Read More »Kabale residents protest three-month power blackout
Kabale, Uganda | URN | A three-month power blackout in Habubare Trading Centre and surrounding villages in Kabale District is crippling businesses and worsening insecurity, leaving residents frustrated over what they describe as inaction by the Uganda Electricity Distribution Company Limited (UEDCL). Electricity consumers in Habubare Trading Centre and six surrounding …
Read More »The story behind the PwC debarment
Kampala, Uganda | URN | The World Bank and its partners have banned three PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) subsidiaries in Africa from their projects for 21 months over corruption charges admitted by the firms. The trouble for PwC Associates Africa Ltd based in Mauritius, PwC Limited Kenya, and PwC Rwanda Limited …
Read More »Oil, power and uncertain fate of Venezuela
CARACAS, VENEZUELA | Xinhua | After explosions rocked Venezuela’s capital, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife were captured and flown out of their country by the U.S. military on early Saturday to New York, leaving the country in a state of emergency. U.S. President Donald Trump insisted Sunday the …
Read More »U.S. invasion of Venezuela: Power and profit
WASHINGTON, United States | Xinhua | The U.S. raid and capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Saturday marks one of the dramatic escalations in U.S. policy toward Latin America in decades. The operation has been framed by Washington as “combating drug trafficking,” but critics argue that its underlying motives …
Read More »
The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price