KAMPALA. Government through the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development has directed the Uganda Electricity Distribution Company Limited (UEDCL) Board to probe and address any lapses in its operations.
The investigations are aimed at restoring confidence of the national power distributor .
The directive comes after the Prime Minister, Ms Robinah Nabbanja blocked plans by the Energy minister, Ms Ruth Nankabirwa, to sack the senior management of the UEDCL, and replace them with a private player in a joint venture arrangement.
“I have been informed that you directed the UEDCL board to review and thereafter cause massive terminations of the UEDCL Senior Management Team (SMT), following an ERA [Electricity Regulatory Authority] confidential performance review report covering last six months,” Ms Nabbanja’s letter to Ms Nankabirwa dated December 3, reads in part.
The letter is copied to the President, Finance minister Matia Kasaija, the Finance ministry’s Permanent Secretary Ramathan Ggoobi, Attorney General Kiryowa Kiwanuka, Energy ministry Permanent Secretary Irene Bateebe, the ERA board and top management, and the UEDCL’s Board and top management.
Ms Patricia Litho, the Assistant Commissioner, Communications and Information Management at the MEMD, says the ministry is aware of information circulating in the media regarding a letter from the Prime Minister, and is also in receipt of its performance assessment by the Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERA).
“The Ministry has requested that the Board of the UEDCL investigate and report to the Ministry in a clear, actionable, and time-bound manner; make corrective actions to address the identified lapses and restore confidence in UEDCL,” she said in a statement dated December 5, 2025.
She added: “The Board of UEDCL is expected to undertake a standard internal inquiry into the issues raised in a routine audit and performance review, in a manner that ensures clarification, transparency, accountability, and due process.”
Ms Litho, however, says to date, no staff member has been dismissed from the UEDCL as a result of the internal inquiry, adding that the ministry will continue to work with the UEDCL, the ERA and the Office of the Prime Minister to ensure that the consumer receives a reliable and continued electrical power supply, among other benefits.
The UEDCL has often accused ERA, the regulator, of covering up Umeme’s shortcomings, which came to light when the government took over the network, among others, while the ERA accused UEDCL of incompetence, arguing that it always received Shs10b annually from the Umeme concession for asset management, which they should have used partly for network rehabilitation.
Such counter-accusations have thrust the Uganda Electricity Transmission Company Limited (UETCL) into the fray for alleged non-investment in key infrastructure to alleviate the system overload.
In her letter, Ms Nabbanja warned of “the probable un-intended consequences of such uncoordinated and massive termination at this critical time, and summarily directed the Energy minister to suspend such plans and wait further discussions in Cabinet and adequate guidance from the President after the heightened political season.
According to Ms Nabbanja, the proposed massive termination of the SMT “will significantly cause unnecessary destabilisation in the general UEDCL workforce, increase power outages and adversely affect the industrial sector in addition to other government programmes”.